Any books change your life? Literally?

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Illusions - Richard Bach
The Wager - Blaise Pascal
Socratic Dialogues - Plato
Koans
Books on stoicism
an essay by richards heuer on competing hypothesis
discipline and punish - michel foucault
the myth of sisyphus and other essays - albert camus
ductigami: the art of the tape - joe wilson
on human nature - edward wilson
essays by hegel on individualism (can't remember the title)

there are more, but these are the books that caused major shifts in my worldview.
 
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I don't read too many books but the most recent ones that really got me was "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" and "Open Veins of Latin America". Learned lots about the history of colonialism and imperialism, and how it's taught in the world
 
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Isekai manga changed my life. I committed suicide like those main chars and i reborn, so i got a new better life now. U guys should try it, there is a chance that you'll failed but dont scare, just do it, u can restart your life.
 
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Probably The Book of The New Sun and related works, to say its whole setting, plot, themes is fascinating is an enormous understatement.
On a more light hearted note, probably the books that made me feel quite happy were The Hobbit, and The Man Who Was Thursday.
I was going to say BotNS too! I feel like I discover a new way of reading the book every time I revisit it.
 
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Quite literally: Factfulness by Hans Rosling, which really took my negative worldview and made it go boom as fuck
 
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Hmm, well... There's multiple mediums which have changed me as a writer and person. I can thank The First Amazing Spiderman Comics (We used to have a first issue amazing spiderman... I can't believe we lost it, but I read it a lot) for letting me think of heroes, furtherly the Iliad truly awoken my writing to a lot more violence. And also made me realize I was always a violent writer.
One Piece though, above all else has shown me the passion and struggles of dreams, and holding onto them. Each day it seems like my ideas falter, or that the book I do send out there someday will be taken from me and turned into something else. Each day I dread coming changes which will rob me of precious time, upon the cusp of such advancements... And yet I can't give up!
One Piece showed me, though many in my life have said that "Imagination eventually stops" "Think of the worse case scenario", I don't need to, no I must not think that way. No Journey is easy, but once you get there, it'll be worth it!
Jojo simply showed me, my wild ideas (which apparently were quite akin to Jojo either way afore exposure) can do something. That they won't fall on deaf ears. I enjoy the difference, as I hate writing something that is the same as everything else!
I got into MHA in a time when I lost many good series either to retcons, or disney or both... It was a dark time, yet there was MHA, with a protagonist who tried his best and was bestowed power and went on to train it! I stopped reading MHA at like Chapter 120... After the Friendly Criminal guy was beaten cuz I found One Piece. But I do feel that uselessness. But then I saw someone, who couldn't have by logic what he wished for... Denying Logic, becoming what he dreamed despite all that others said... It moved me. Heh, I didn't get far in drawing though which I tried sometime after, but Writing's for me!
Fist of the North Star is I think, The Second Best Story in Fiction, behind LOTR to me. It may seem weird to others, but I'm in a Kung Fu Period in writing, and after fearing the series for years. I finally started and couldn't stop! Yet another man of perseverence, one driven by love for a woman who at times seemed he'd never reach. This connects on a deeper level I'm unwilling to explore further here, but I must say, the bleakness, at times most horrid, and often tearjerking, does offer some hope later. It scared me, saddened me, but it also showed me to not give up again.
And That's it! For those not wanting to read several malformed paragraphs, look below!
1. Iliad: Opening up my writing to violence, or embracing it. (Strange, I know, but it helped down the line in showing me, that freedom is better than constricting my mind for an audience which is not even there yet!)
2. One Piece: Helping me to hold onto my dreams, for they are who I am.
3. Jojo: Showing me Bizarre Ideas are the best, no use in making something basic!
4. MHA: Perserverance! Deny Logic!
5. HNK: Don't Stop!
 
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Apologies if this isn't the right place to talk about this but it is literature. I am about halfway through an old 1936 self-help book 'how to win friends and influence people' and it has changed the way I look at myself and other people. It especially made me conscious of how often I criticize others, even those I love the most. I am finding myself looking inward to why I do this[my rearing], what benefit it gives me[momentary feeling of superiority maybe?] and what benefit it has to others[none. zero.]. "The only way to get someone to do something is to make them want to do it." Sure you can force someone to do something if you have power over them in some way, but that is an illusion and temporary, they have not changed anything and will resent you for it. I have been criticizing and casually belittling my family for things my whole life and it hasn't brought anyone any benefit, just unhappiness and resentment. I am going to start complimenting them for the things I like that they do, instead of always commenting on the things I don't like that they do or I feel they should do differently. I want to start making other people feel smart and important instead of stupid and small. I don't know how to build good relationships with people but I am going to try harder from now on.

Anyone have a similar experience with a book they read?
Once upon a time, I also read (or listened to an audiobook, I don’t remember) this book. I liked her. But then I was very upset that I read that the author himself died alone. And he didn't have many friends. It's sad .. Probably the secret is not only in this ..

And returning to your question .. Probably I don’t have such a book, if we are talking about fiction.
 
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"The Poisoner's Handbook" by Deborah Blum basically killed my faith in humanity. It's a history of toxic materials in the American 1920's. People were making fucking sports drinks with radium and they only started to care that people were dying after some famous golfer got cancer. The first use anyone had for antifreeze was cough medicine, because it has a sweet, raspberry-like flavor. Lead was used color and flavor foods. Anyone who's expecting individual greed to save humanity from death by mismanagement is delusional.


"An Underground Education" by Richard Zacks showed me that history taught on the broadest scale will always show it in its most blandly presentable form. The world has always been fucked up and people have been pretty much the same throughout. For instance, Pocahontas was actually a tobacco spokesperson. For most of Christianity's existence, holy persons would whip themselves bloody in public to scourge sins. Many abstained from bathing to the extent that maggots would visibly infest them, which was considered positive in that it demonstrated a lack of vanity. Many parents would "accidentally" castrate their sons so that they could become professional singers. Women would practice nursing with dogs. They wouldn't feed their children milk from animals because they thought it would make their brains like the animals from which the milk came. They wrapped babies tightly in cloth because they were afraid that limbs would otherwise fail to develop.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke impressed upon me the insignificance of humanity to the overall cosmos, the cold beauty of the universe itself, and that humans should probably build artificially intelligent robots to handle space travel because we are certainly not up to the task.
Really interesting picks, I wish wanting to seek out stuff like this came more naturally to me but I mostly follow other people's foot steps.
As for books that change my life, I don't think there ever was a book that marked a definitive change. It felt more like every book made me learn something new that would become part of me. There was some change to me but I think I'm ultimately the same person with the same thoughts and emotions after reading everything I've read. In that regard, real life experiences tend to leave more of a mark on me.
Maybe I'm not employing enough critical thought and I've just been mindlessly consuming it, really envy the people who get super into books and love raving about it, in their own way.
Throwing in a few recs I can think off the top of my head I remember reading: Murder of Roger Ackryod, I'm Glad My Mom Died, Diary of a Bookseller, How to Properly Read Books, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Homo Deus, and The Godfather.
 
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The Three Musketeers was basically the book that turned me into a bookworm, at the tender age of six. I reread it at least a dozen times since and it's fun every time anew.
 

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