Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
The book that comes to my mind as an answer to the question above is The King James version of the Bible. It may sound corny but it did have a long lasting effect on me. I attended a church run school for several years when I was young and a copy of it was part of the required school equipment. I still have the child sized edition that my parents bought me back then.
|
I'd have to say the Bible as well, but [at the risk of treading into topics best reserved for the restricted subforums] not in the way that most would assume if I said it without qualification.
I spent years of my life chasing after what I understood to be a literal interpretation of that book. It affected my job choices, my marriage, my performance in science classrooms [especially Biology], etc. Later in life I gave it an honest look and re-read it trying to ignore the influence of all preconceived and taught interpretations and REALLY read it, and that changed my life even more drastically than the previous attempts to read it. That said, the change wasn't in the direction that many who profess to believe it would say that it should.
I've since read and reread it many times more than I had before and find it to be an extremely intriguing book, but wonder how I ever could have repeatedly read over certain uncomfortable sections without actually seeing the words in front of me.
I also found it interesting that you mention the King James version in particular. To this day, even though I no longer believe that the book holds any divine authority over my life, I still find that any other translation just doesn't do it for me. Having grown up only reading that one translation the others just feel like cheap imitations, like reading a reader's digest version or a children's version.