The Book(s) that changed the Way You See the World

[kalwisti]

It's almost impossible for me to list specific book titles, but I can mention two writers who changed my world view: R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) and Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991).

Narayan created the fictional town of Malgudi, located "somewhere in South India," which is a microcosm of India itself. His characters come from all castes, have a variety of personality types and attitudes towards life.

Singer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978, richly describes the Jewish experience both in Eastern Europe and through Jewish-American immigrants. I was tempted to study Yiddish, just so that I could read his works in the original. (That is still on my bucket list).

These gifted writers gave me an insider's glimpse of cultures which are very different from my own.

[conan50]

Same as Crich regarding the KJV.
Also "The Golden Sayings of Epictetus" followed by Epictetus' Discourses. Common sense Stoic philosophy.
Fiction is much harder if you measure it by a world-changing view. I guess I would say "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury, because it showed me that books are amazing things, more than simply paper and print when I read it as a boy.

[FacebookVirus]

Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was very impressionable when I was 17. I've reread it once since becoming an adult, and I very seldom reread books. It's still high on my list of favorites.

[BelleZora]

I read Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 by J.H. Powell years ago, and it caused me to consider the different ways people react to times of great crisis. Why are some people heroes and stay to provide aid at great personal risk and others demonize the victims and consider only their own safety? I spent days considering which type I would truly want to be and years wondering if I would have the courage of my convictions. The descriptions of Philadelphia even caused me to go there to see the many historical buildings that still stand.

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck is partly to blame for a life-long devotion to long, meandering road trips. Experience has led me to believe that Steinbeck is guilty of some embroidering, but I forgive him.

Reading Walden by Thoreau at a young age led to a simplified life which I have never regretted, nor have I felt compelled to explain myself to others since we all have to work out what we value for ourselves.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard has the same effect on me as a day at an art museum. When I put the book down or step out of the museum after hours of immersion in art, my vision is altered and I see the astonishing beauty of everything. I walk around in awe until the effect wears off. I've read it multiple times until it is as familiar as Goldilocks was in my childhood.

The novels of Tom Robbins have a similar effect. They infect me with the certainty that life is an incredible adventure, imagination is a gift worth cultivating, and words are magic and beautiful. If I start to forget, I read one again to get myself straightened out.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^I believe you're the only other person I know to have mentioned Tom Robbins on this forum. I really enjoyed a couple of his books. I need to read a couple more.

[BelleZora]

Yes, had my life been bereft of the influence of the amazing and occasionally whacked-out brain of Tom Robbins, it would have been dimmer, duller, and sadly more normal. I must write him a note expressing my immense gratitude.

I forgot to mention Dubliners by James Joyce, a book I did not much enjoy reading and will never read again. Yet its impact was profound. It was the first book to make me really consider how people can become paralyzed in behavior destructive to themselves and others, and yet, even when they realize it, they are unable to change even to save themselves or the people they most love.

Continuing the theme of paralysis and change, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie has stayed with me because of the questions exploring change or metamorphosis. Do we have an essential center or are we simply moments strung together? It also explored the nature of evil, and the presence of good and evil in the same person. As well as the experience of the immigrant. It was another book I didn't love, yet it will probably never leave me.

[AlbertaCowboy]

For me, it's "Vimy" by Pierre Berton.
I was given this book by my dad at a very early age, and it kickstarted a fierce lifelong pride and love for my country and its rich (albeit relatively short) history. It is also the first book that I had read that was wholly Canadian in scope and content. It is not only a masterpiece of Canadian history, but a detailed and accurate portrayal of the Great War in the trenches.

[JimmyH]

Originally Posted by crich70

I'd have to go with the KJV right off the bat. It has a lot to say about the human condition in general and doesn't pull any punches.

Why I view the Bible as life changing is better expressed by D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones than anything I could say. In his introduction to "Studies In The Sermon On The Mount" he starts out by saying ;

"There is nothing more important in the Christian life than the way in which we approach the Bible and the way in which we read it. It is our textbook, it is our only source, it is our only authority.

We know nothing about God and about the Christian life in a true sense apart from the Bible. We can draw various deductions from nature (and possibly from various mystical experiences) by which we can arrive at a belief in a supreme Creator. But I think it is agreed by most Christians and it has been traditional throughout the long history of the Church that we have no authority save this Book.

We cannot rely solely upon subjective experiences because there are evil spirits as well as good spirits' there are counterfeit experiences. Here, in the Bible is our sole authority."

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

^I believe you're the only other person I know to have mentioned Tom Robbins on this forum. I really enjoyed a couple of his books. I need to read a couple more.

With your Skinny legs and all.

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by kennyc

With your Skinny legs and all.

[mandy314]

Try to be open-minded and to give every book the chance to hit me between the eyes - even if it's only a sentence or two which get me thinking ...

Two books from the 80s came to mind when I saw OP's question:
- Martin Amis: Money
- Dovid Lodge: Small World
Both novels are in some way reflections on the postmodern "Anything Goes" culture. But despite all the diversification of life-styles in the end all that matters is money and/or power it seems. The books are funny - with the British twist of bitter-sweetness. I have now bought both books for a re-read on my Kindle. I expect to enjoy them - will see how it is after 30 years. "Anything Goes" is still there, in most cases with the addendum "If You Can Get Away With It" or in the form of "I Can Do (Get Away With It)".

Of the great modern classics I must mention Bernard Malamud - his short stories are heart-breaking and can make you very angry indeed.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by kennyc

With your Skinny legs and all.

How would you know? My frog pajamas are covering them up.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

How would you know? My frog pajamas are covering them up.

Tom told me.

[BenG]

There's a joke in there somewhere about pajamas and woodpeckers, but I'll refrain.

I've only read Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Skinny Legs and All. Which book of his should be read next?

[Rizla]

The I Ching.
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet
In the Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke)