Jun 26 2008
Books That Changed My Life
Which books have changed your life? I’m not talking about good or even great books, or memorable ones, or favorite ones. I mean books that altered your behavior, changed your mind, redirected the course of your life. These books added something permanent to me - an insight, a vision, an attitude.
Here’s my list, in roughly the order they entered my life:
- 50 Short Science Fiction Tales
, edited by Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin. This one opened my eyes to the incredible possibilities of sci-fi and speculative fiction. I’ve read this one many times over the years.
- Worldbook Encyclopedia. Okay it’s not a book. I used to pick a volume and just start reading. I discovered that there is knowledge outside my sphere of experience.
- Flap, novelization of a Clair Huffaker screenplay. An eminently forgettable 1960s movie starring Anthony Quinn as a drunken Indian. Mom saw me reading it and was aghast that I would read such a thing at my tender age. The incident (not the book) made me understand the power of books to influence - and offend - others.
- The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R Tolkein. This was my first introduction to the concept of exceptional talent in an author. It made me a dyed-in-the-wool bookworm.
- Illusions, by Richard Bach. Everything is an illusion and we create our own reality. I ran into this New Age mumbo-jumbo in my teens and it screwed me up for years.
- Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Showed me the destructive decadence of modern liberalism. Rand is a tediously self-important writer, but her concepts blew me away.
- Razor’s Edge, by Somerset Maugham. Another one that screwed me up for quite awhile. The story of a disillusioned WW1 fighter pilot who seeks enlightenment. He finds Buddhist ‘wisdom’ on a mountaintop. I found this book when I was searching for The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. I should have read Douglas Adams instead.
- The Bible, by God. I didn’t know any better, so I started at Genesis and read to Revelation. I’m glad I did.
- Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge. Eldredge is frequently criticized for his answers, but not for his questions, namely, why are Christian men wimps, and what are you going to do about it?
- Stand Into Danger, by Douglas Reeman (writing as Alexander Kent). The second or sixth or eleventy-twelfth book in the Richard Bolitho series of nautical fiction set in the Age of Sail. It was while reading this book that I decided I could write at least as well as the author.
- On Writing, by Stephen King. Exceptional insight into what it takes to be a writer.
What’s on your list?
