Books That Affected You

[Khedive Rex]

NOTE! This is a thread for books that resulted in tangible, real-life changes in your life or life style.

This is not a thread for "I read x book and it made me cry." unless you finish that sentence with "- so much that I stalked and killed the author for releasing such misery onto the world!" This is not a thread for "I read the Great Gatsby and really identified with the characters." unless you identified with them so much that you changed your name to Jay Gatz and bought a mansion in New York.

This is a thread for books that changed your life in some way. Did you read the Communist Manifesto and spend the next month touting the joys of socialism to your friends and family? Did you read Lord of the Flies and develop a fear of deers? (I've never read the book and thusly don't understand the connection but this actually happened to a friend of mine)

What's a book that affected you and how did it do it?

For me I spent about 2 and a half weeks straight reading every Sherlock Holmes story I could get my hands on. I read them non-stop until I couldn't find any new ones and for 6 days after I stopped reading Sherlock Holmes, I was able to use Holmesian deduction on the people I met. It was easily the best week of my life! I correctly guessed the approximate ages, heights, weights and minor personality points of an entire family I had never met just by looking at the front of their house! For six glorious days I was Sherlock Holmes.

Then I had to read the next Harry Potter book and mess it all up. Ever wish you could just go back in time and hit yourself with a garden rake?

Anyway, what's your story? Which books have affected you?

 

[bodyklok]

Sun Tzu's The art of war. It has made me look at the world in a totally new way every action people do every thing they say and everything they don't I haven't put it down I've been re-reading it over and over again.

 

[Rotating Bread]

1984 had quite an impact, as did Burmese Days. Orwell's lonely male protagonists and leftward leaning politics always seem to strike a chord with me.

I have to give a mention to star wars novel Truce at Bakura as it was the unlikely book that got me into reading. Although i'm glad to say i graduated from star wars books some time ago.

 

[Larmo]

Terry Pratchet's Discworld series, all of his books have a satirical humor about the world and how it operates, like how one city in a book made theft legal to reduce crime as long as it was "licensed" crime, and un-licensed theft was punishable by death. It was both amusing and enjoyable, and completely changed how i view the world and interact with people i find myself testing people so see if they mirror these satirical characters populating the book and find there more often than not true, but it could be where i live.

 

[the monopoly guy]

after reading Finding Moon by Tony Hillerman I went and bought Battlefield: Vietnam...does that count?

 

[RaffB]

Seconded on the discworld series, the humour in them is nothing short of epic

Catcher in the Rye affected me a bit, mainly taught me to stop being such a whiny bastard and live life for once , lest i turn into Holden before i hit 18.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

War Of The World by H.G. Wells. Just the way it is written captures your imagination and it is like you are sitting at a pub with the narrator as he tells his tale of Martian invasion. The way it is written is like a historical account, rather than pure fiction. You also have the subtle criticism of British colonialism.

 

[jdog345]

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

And The Republic by Plato.

 

[Khedive Rex]

1984 had quite an impact, as did Burmese Days. Orwell's lonely male protagonists and leftward leaning politics always seem to strike a chord with me.

War Of The World by H.G. Wells. Just the way it is written captures your imagination and it is like you are sitting at a pub with the narrator as he tells his tale of Martian invasion. The way it is written is like a historical account, rather than pure fiction. You also have the subtle criticism of British colonialism.

I think some of you have subtly missed the point of the thread. You have to say what the book resulted in. We've had lots of threads about what books are good, this one is about what books resulted in some kind of change or action.

after reading Finding Moon by Tony Hillerman I went and bought Battlefield: Vietnam...does that count?

It most certainly counts. The book you read resulted in some kind of action thusly the book affected you.

 

[Alex_P]

Hmm...

Rules of Play changed how I play and think about games. I realized I was very picky and focused my attention on ways to satisfy that pickiness by tweaking games I played (for video games, this means using mods and cheats).

War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning changed the way I look at history, culture, and every single item of the news -- not to a ridiculous degree, but still significantly.

-- Alex

 

[Rymonster]

A Million Little Pieces by James Fray made me think about addiction and recovery, really getting into the mind of a drug addict going through his rehabilitation.
And how his addiction stemmed from things that had happened to him by no direct fault of his own. It also helped me get a better understanding of the 12-step program and how it doesn't have to be religious.
I'm not an addict by the way or a recovering addict, but this book made sure I stayed that way!

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Ummm...... The Shadow Over Innsmouth made appriceiate killing Murlocs in the 2 days I played a trial of WoW.

The Herbert West stories told to always consider morality over advancement.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

1984 had quite an impact, as did Burmese Days. Orwell's lonely male protagonists and leftward leaning politics always seem to strike a chord with me.

War Of The World by H.G. Wells. Just the way it is written captures your imagination and it is like you are sitting at a pub with the narrator as he tells his tale of Martian invasion. The way it is written is like a historical account, rather than pure fiction. You also have the subtle criticism of British colonialism.

I think some of you have subtly missed the point of the thread. You have to say what the book resulted in. We've had lots of threads about what books are good, this one is about what books resulted in some kind of change or action.

after reading Finding Moon by Tony Hillerman I went and bought Battlefield: Vietnam...does that count?

It most certainly counts. The book you read resulted in some kind of action thusly the book affected you.

War Of The Worlds affected my writing style and I actually plan on retracing the steps the narrator took through suburban England. Not exactly world-changing stuff; wait till I get around to reading 'Demanding The Impossible' by Peter Marshall or 'The McDonaldisation Of Society' by Alexander Berkman.

 

[Rob Sharona]

Has anyone read the book "Haunted" by Chuck Pahluniuk (he wrote Fight Club folks), and in particular the story "Guts" extracted from it? Basically it is the single most disgusting thing I have ever read. Chuck would read it to crowds on his promotional trips and 4 or 5 men without exception would pass out. I thought this was bullshit, then when I read it it literally knocked me back and I had to stop, take a deep breath and calm down. It is so gross (it's basically about masturbation stories gone wrong, only much worse than you could possible imagine).

The way it affected my life was that I told as many people about this amazing story about masturbation and I got the impression that everyone thought I was obsessed with masturbating for a while. Haha, that's it.

 

[the_tralfalmadorian]

The Prince by Machiavelli took my paranoid distrust of people and their motives and taught me to use it.

 

[the protaginist]

well,the book The Ice Man: confessions of a mafia contract killer( the life story of Richard Kuklinski) made me realize the type of environment that a killer-to-be grows up in effects who he is in the future.so when i hear about a court case of a murder I look up the killer and see what kind of background he came from.

 

[ThePoodonkis]

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton made me not want to go into archaeology.

 

[PurpleRain]

HP Lovecraft sort of made me realise how little we know of the galaxy and so tiny and unimportant we are.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton made me not want to go into archaeology.

Are you currently studying or just wanted to for a while?

 

[ThePoodonkis]

Are you currently studying or just wanted to for a while?

Wanted to for awhile.

 

[fulano]

Hmm. I guess mine would have to be House of Leaves. That book comletely changed my view on how to rate or criticize books. The thing just keeps going around in weird ways and is a mixture of many styles. Now, when I read a book I try to think on what the author was trying to put forward instead on a notion on what should the actor put forward to make me get that notion.