A book that changed your life/perspective/etc?

[John_Owl]

Basically, a book that has had some major impact on you. Could be that it's changed your life, how you view your life, your goals, or whatever.

I'll go first: Tuesdays with Morrie. I'm currently rereading it for the 8th time. And every time I read it, I laugh. I cry. And every time, I find some new message applicable to my current stage in life.

I first read it as a student. It gave me an appreciation for life. Helped wiggle me from the deep, drowning depression I had been in.

I read it when I fell in love. It made me understand what it actually means to love and be loved. I saw my wife in a whole new light.

I read it when I became a parent and it helped me see the kind of parent I wanted to be and how to achieve that goal.

10/10, would recommend. It's a relatively short book. I could get through it in a day. But I prefer to take my time. To enjoy the ride it offers.

So, what are yours? You needn't go as in depth as I have here.

 

[Corty]

It is not that grandiose at all, but:

A Talent for War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It made me love sci-fi.

 

[Alfir]

Rizal in Dapitan

 

[LilRora]

I have a few, hard to decide on one in particular. Trouble with Horns and Vigor Mortis made me realize a lot about identity, The Eminence in Shadow about power, and Depth by Marcin Podlewski. It's a sci-fi that borders on supernatural, and it's got one of the most unique perspectives on aliens and humanity I've ever seen.

 

[expentio]

There would be 3 in my case. "Overlord", that got me into light novels, "So I'm a Spider So What?" that showed me that kind of adventure perspective exists. Yet then I got Core.001 on this site and it became my absolute favorite. Never again was I so compelled by a story. Sadly, it then went on infinite hiatus and I didn't really find something thatmade me feel quite like it again. Well, eventually after this, I started writing my own stories. So yeah, I guess they had some impact.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

The Things They Carried was one of the very first books to get me into reading, classics especially. It is also the only book that has ever made me gag. It's a messy, confusing, fever dream account of the Vietnam war and while I'd never put it on a list of my favorite books, I still have to admit that I didn't know reading could be so engaging before then.

(edit- I forgot I literally have a tattoo for The Old Man and the Sea lol)

 

[RedMuffin]

This one destroyed my world view and I dropped it immediately after I realized what sin I have committed by opening the Pandora's box.

Spoiler: ⚠ !DON'T OPEN IT! ⚠

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-am-an-xxxl-con/

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Devil is a part-timer got me into jp web novels

 

[theInmara]

Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like by Mercer Meyer and Jay Williams.

It influenced our artwork profoundly, it captured out imagination and we could vividly visualize the story without looking at the artwork and gave us such a taste for that, and it lay the groundwork for our understanding of ourselves as dragons.

 

[Nolff]

Basically, a book that has had some major impact on you. Could be that it's changed your life, how you view your life, your goals, or whatever.

I'll go first: Tuesdays with Morrie. I'm currently rereading it for the 8th time. And every time I read it, I laugh. I cry. And every time, I find some new message applicable to my current stage in life.

I first read it as a student. It gave me an appreciation for life. Helped wiggle me from the deep, drowning depression I had been in.

I read it when I fell in love. It made me understand what it actually means to love and be loved. I saw my wife in a whole new light.

I read it when I became a parent and it helped me see the kind of parent I wanted to be and how to achieve that goal.

10/10, would recommend. It's a relatively short book. I could get through it in a day. But I prefer to take my time. To enjoy the ride it offers.

So, what are yours? You needn't go as in depth as I have here.

A yellow book.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

For positive influence, would have to be "Strunk & White's Elements of Style" - among other things, it taught the "minimize passive voice - there are times when you cannot completely avoid it, but when you can, you should" and a bunch of other rules (that I probably break frequently but ... eh...)
For a more questionable influence, would have to be the audio novel of "My Vampire System" - introduced me to the idea of writing serial fiction, and the idea of creating stories with a "System" - two things I had never really considered (well, I had considered serial fiction in the context of writing comic books, and had been doing serialIZED fiction in an APA in the 90s but never considered it as something "real")

 

[RecursiveDescent]

The literal first and only true book I've read was "how to train your dragon"
The movie adaptation was the best, and the movie adaptation is not even the same story as the book in any way.
Then I realized I could read the book series and experience a whole new story, and it was perfect in every way. I don't know if I could wish they adapted the book story instead of making a new one because the story they went with for the adaptation was also incredible.

There is absolutely no other book that could give me the same feeling no matter how hard I looked.

 

[Astrolust]

Perks of being a wallflower and fight club I read over and over and over again in highschool. My edgey bro era. And then on here, I Started To Gain Sentience In An Eroge changed what i thought you could do with a Yandere story. And then anything by that eldrichlord dude. His reverse gender stories were *chefs kiss*

 

[BearlyAlive]

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett got me into humor and (unintended) (mutual) verbal destruction. Otherwise I might have turned into one of those edgy chuuni tryhards

 

[RepresentingDesire]

Scp Ouroboros

It was the novel(?) that gave me a existential crisis, it showed me beauty and eternity.

 

[Triskele_Lynx]

Well, this may have not changed my whole life, but it certainly changed my attitude towards news, media, advertising and politics.

Propaganda self defense should absolutely be taught in high school, although I'm sure certain influential groups would vigorously oppose it.

I should say two things about it: I just found out about the second edition and haven't read it yet, and Jack and I were friends in college. Even so, I think I can objectively recommend it.

https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Propagandists-Self-Defense-Jack-Nolan-ebook/dp/B0157F8KVS

 

[John_Owl]

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett got me into humor and (unintended) (mutual) verbal destruction. Otherwise I might have turned into one of those edgy chuuni tryhards

Discworld was another good one. Only read it once, but it had quite the impact on modern fiction, nearly as much as Tolkien did. And about as much as Salvatore's Drizzt series did.

Another book that had a profound impact on me (not nearly as much as Tuesday's with Morrie) was No Man's Land by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. It's about the American Civil War. Specifically, a young boy who joined the southern army to be Patriotic. He got through training, made it to his first battle, and realized "I'm going to die. I'm going to die because these powdered-wig-wearing jackanapes want slaves. No benefit to my family at all."

It really shows the gritty, dirty conditions of war, especially back then when we didn't understand hygiene to be as important as we do now. It's for older children (i'd say around 5-6th grade), but definitely worth the read once.

Edit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/428824.No_Man_s_Land

 

[tealery]

Eragon because it made me want to write at the ripe old age of 10.

 

[Iloveshovels]

Lv.1 skeleton

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Eragon because it made me want to write at the ripe old age of 10.

IIRC that means you started two years before the author did!