What book has impacted your life the most?

BlibBlab

Started a similar thread on the gentlemans forum, interested to get womens perspective too. What book has had the most impact on your life or left the biggest impression on you?

For me it was Mark Williams Mindfulness book

panda100

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. One read of that and any faith or spirituality I had was gone. It made me live everyday for the moment and make the most of the one life I have, instead of waiting for or worrying about an afterlife that doesn't exist.

meeeeh

I am not a spiritual person but after starting The God Delusion I almost wanted to become religious. I gave up on the book then.

Anyway I don't do spiritual, self help or inspirational stuff so I would probably have to pick novel or a play (I don't do much poetry either). I think Sartre's No Exit is the one that really stayed with me for it's central idea.

Spirogyra

'How to win friends and influence people' taught me to listen

intheclouds

Probably Yargo by Jacqueline Susanne. Not because it's a particularly great book, but because it was the first "adult" book (ie, not an Enid Blyton or similar) I read so I suddenly realised what a great world of books was out there waiting to be read!

Around the same age (maybe 12) I read Flowers in the Attic and thus began a period of hiding my reading material from my parents!

Then around 15 or 16 I read Firestarter and my love of horror fiction was born.

caille

'Me Before You' by Jojo Moyles, this has had a very positive, very meaningful impact on me, I adore it.

TG1

Quiet by Susan Cain. As an introvert working in a profession largely populated by extroverts it came as a timely reminder that I can contribute in the working world just as well as the majority of my colleagues but just in a quieter manner.

R.D. aka MR.D

I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac when I was 12. It's such a cliche because it's a teenager book but it really impacted my life.

It made me want to travel and experience things. I was never happy just settling at home after I read it. Luckily, I've been able to follow my dreams and have lived abroad and travelled extensively. I even did a massive road trip across the US!

I often wonder though if I hadn't of read that book would I have been so restless.

I've also always just gone with the flow in my life so far. If an opportunity comes up then I just take it and see what happens even if it goes against good sense sometimes.

I mean, of course, I now realise that the Beats were just the annoying hipsters of their day but it really and truly changed my life.


Another was Adult Children of Alcoholics. It really made me realise that the negative parts of my personality were just results of my childhood and not really some biological thing that couldn't be changed or improved.

ems_12

'Lean In' by Sheryl Sandberg.

IrishAlice

It's Called a Breakup Because it's Broken by Greg Behrendt.

I'm not usually one for these types of books but I had just gone through a bad breakup and wasn't coping very well when my friend recommended this book.

It gave me an entire new perspective on what happened and helped me to move past the hurt and bad feelings.