Which books changed your life, and why?

[juniper904]

I'm of the Catcher in the Rye camp. I know it's very mainstream and therefore I am a dick, but it genuinely changed my life. I remember lying in bed, with snow falling heavy outside, reading the book whilst I should have been at sixth form. It hit me in a way no other book has.

My DP was equally moved by To Kill A Mockingbird and wants to give our first born son the middle name Atticus, but that's a different thread but I didn't feel particularly enamoured by the book.

So which books have changed your life, and why? What should I read to have another heart-stopping, existence-questioning moment?

[littletingoddess]

I'm not sure that I have ever read a book that fundamentally 'changed' me, but I have certainly read many that have stayed with me, and that I find myself thinking of from time to time. If I suggest a book based on that, it would have to be "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. I think I was about 11 the first time I read it, and it became a summer tradition of mine to borrow it from the library every summer to take to the beach for a week (I would sit on the flat's balcony, stare at the ocean and read away, it's a big novel). I'd highly recommend reading the entire series, in fact, but in chronological order instead of the order in which they were written. Beautiful stories. :)

[thewhistler]

Cry The Beloved Country, apartheid, hearbreaking.

To kill a Mocking bird.

The Glass Bead Game

Lord M. Why politics is so difficult to get right.

I think I read them all within about 18 months when I was 15 and they have coloured my life.

[caffinequeen]

The five people you meet in heaven. At the time I read it I was going through a tough time feeling that I was just bumbling along and not doing anything worthwhile.... that book made me feel better about myself.

In a less sentimental way, The To Do List by Mike Gayle has inspired me to actually get things done.

[chirpchirp]

Flowers for Algernon. Read it at the age of 14 and have read it ever year since.

[Nermalkins]

For me it was the Fountain Head by Ayn Rand, the book is so diametrically opposite to what I believe that I was shocked. It was so well written and so engaging though I couldn't put the book down.
It also made re-evaluate some of my own ideas.

[lifeisfuckinggreat]

If this is a man. The Truce. By Primo Levi

I was told it was life changing and you had to be ready to read the book.

That kind of built it up in my mind. When I did read it, it blew me away. Profound, raw, light of touch, devastating.
An Auschwitz survivor who gave a gift to the world by sharing his experiences.

I also love To Kill a Mockingbird.
Magical book.

[CornishKK]

Dirty Weekend by Helen Zahavi, I read it when I was 20 and it made me think about the choices I was making in life and realise that I didn't have to make them.

Fabulous book - sadly made into a terrible film directed by Michael Winner.

[Ilovedaintynuts]

I'm in fact a complete wally. The book is The Unlikely Pilgrimage by Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

[Ilovedaintynuts]

We need to talk about Kevin did that for me. The 'nature/nurture' argument fascinates me and this book sums it up in one shocking novel.

I read Wild Swans in my twenties and that book stayed with me for years. I couldn't believe that nobody had ever mentioned The Cultural Revolution in China to me and just how ignorant people are about billions of people.

The Poisonwood Bible just for its sheet brilliance at story-telling. I have never read it again as I'm scared it won't live up to my memory of it.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Joyce I only read last month. I'm still thinking about it. Every now an again I read a book that I should have written.
Simple, tragic and beautiful. Have tissues.

[herethereeverywhere]

Matilda when I was young. Showed me that reading books was awesome and adults are stupid

When I was around 13 I remember sitting up all night reading Wuthering Heights. Realised that classics are sometimes called that for a reason.

White Teeth was amazing and I went round telling everyone to read it.

More recently Book Thief and Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Both left me speechless and thinking about them for days afterwards. The sign of a good book in my humble opinion.

[TittyWhistles]

Siddhartha changed me. I'm so glad I found that book

[Bluegingham]

I love Wayne Dyer. Love him.

[Bluegingham]

Gosh this thread has amazed me! Read Catcher in the Rye and didn't get it at all. I thought I had a version with a chapter ripped out.

A child called it: a cynical piece of crap, didn't get the hype either.

What actually changed my life was "Feel the fear and do it anyway." Totally altered my outlook.

No offence to those who liked the books I didn't get. I'm missing something!

[maristella]

The Lovely Bones. Maybe a bit cliched, but it gave me a new perspective on how to let go of (for want of a better phrase) the beloved departed. It gave me a sense of allowing them to rest in peace.

[KatMumsnet]

Hi there, we've moved this into Adult Fiction as it's not really an AIBU. Thanks.

[Fairylea]

A child called it.
Absolutely heartbreaking. And I could relate to some of it in the sense of having an unpredictable alcoholic mother with mental health issues.

Also the bfg. As a child that started my great love of reading.

[Vinomcstephens]

Wuthering Heights for me - read it for the first time when I was 15 and I wanted that wild, passionate love and swore I'd never settle for anyone where that reckless passion didn't exist - and I haven't! I waited for my own Heathcliff and thank god he came along otherwise I'd end up 90 years old in my rocking chair, resolutely single and hating the damn book!

[aldiwhore]

So many have really, each book changes my life a little! Astonishing Splashes of Colour was one that broke my heart, challenged my perceptions of motherhood and mental illness and warm my cockles without being sentimental and wishy wiashy. I am ashamed I can't remember the author's name.

(Also, my friend's nephew is called Atticus - I think it suits him)

[janey68]

Another one here for The Book Thief. Inspirational. Heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Definitely made me look at things in a new way. I remember feeling along the same lines as a teenager with things like Catcher and TKAMB but I find it rare as an adult to find something which has that life changing effect.

[Littleprincessrocks]

I read a book as a student Nurse called "Hannah's Gift: Lessons from a life fully lived" by Maria Housden, which really opened my eyes to the way patients are treated in hospital, especially children.
Although I sobbed my eyes out at the end, I think it made me more proactive in considering how the children in my care felt about what they were going through.
My tutor at University wanted to make it part of the carriculum, but they decided not to, so she handed her copy of the book around all of our group.
It is a must read for all in the medical field in my opinion, and would help quite a few Doctors realise their bedside manor needs work.

[autumnlights12]

The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. I've not been able to look at life the same way since I read it eighteen years ago. Theres no such thing as a coincidence.

[hermioneweasley]

"whale done" by ken Blanchard. Completely changed te way I managed people and therefore changed my career and my life.

[CrunchyFrog]

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

I first read it at about 11 I think, and many times subsequently. It made me think in a new way about things, and led me in to my deep and abiding love of sci-fi.

[shockers]

I told all my friends in my first year of high school about 'Are You There God, it's Me Margaret' and there was a waiting list in the school library for it. It got back to the head that I'd started the craze and I had to write a review of the book for him, to explain why I had liked it so much .