Any books change your life? Literally?

[HamSalad]

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?

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

I don't have a book that have changed my life but I do have several other things that does that.

In the movie Tomorrowland, they showed how human-like the androids there can be. That moment sort of made me question, "If the robots have become so lifelike, what seperates them from us?" This question had me obsessed over robots and androids for the next several months and is a huge reason as to why I write sci-fi/fantasy (as a hobby).

Also Porter Robinson. He is the man that basically changed my life in one fell swoop. In his music video, Shelter, he had me obsessed over both anime and EDM - two things I can't see myself living without now that I am familiar with them. This is a stunning piece of art. From EDM I eventually ventured to pop, Lo-Fi, vocaloid, a bit of J-pop so all that is great as well.

Talking about things on YouTube, that platform literally holds 50% on my entertaintment and stress-reliever. If it's down, I'd probably have severe withdrawal like a drug addict. I built my schedule around watching enough videos to keep me entertained as well as maintaining my online presence.

It also brought a couple things. There's this one youtuber, whom I will not mention. Basically he got me into debates even though I hate him. Also the recent Pewdiepie v.s. T-Series event has its own meaning to me: the realization of one of the final battles in the internet as well as the entire world in a struggle to see who will win - personality and charisma or sheer hardwork of algorthmic efficiency. This had me ponder over it enough such that I am writing a story where society has progressed and devolved in such a way where currency does not matter, allowing fame, dignity, and pride to take more importance over money and essentially starting another Renaissance era of modern culture; and it sort of makes me want to visit that place...

I went on a tangent away from the main topic but I hope you did enjoy my input regardless.

 

[keoxkeox]

This will not be a long reply unlike the previous one but,
I guess "The little prince", it is really easy to interpret everything a little bit differently if you read it every couple of years. Last time I had read it, it made me realize pointlessness of getting drowned in my small problems, being extremely attached to my not so special life. I guess it has soothed me.

 

[Shitposter-chan]

"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.

 

[Natureboy]

@Shitposter-chan "Fussy" babies sometimes do much better when swaddled. They calm down when wrapped. Perhaps it helps with the feeling of powerlessness from an immature nervous system.

On topic: A print version of The Encyclopedia Britannica showed me that human knowledge could be organized and presented clearly. It contributed to me wanting to be a scientist and my confidence as a teacher.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

@Shitposter-chan Holy crap. That poison thing is terrifying.

Btw did you know that the first vaccine was discovered by literally injecting a boy with the measles virus from a cow? A man injected a live virus into a human body to see what happens.

"Vacca" means cow in Latin so that's where you get "vaccination".

 

[DjAlexDubCheck]

@Shitposter-chan
You have great taste, these books are very interesting

 

[Wake-the-winds]

The main thing that sort of changed my life (for better and worse) was a novel called Demian. When I read it I was in sort of a dark place and I felt like I was properly understood for the first time. Not only that but I felt as if I could understand myself and everything else so much better and that really helped me at the time, it sort of gave me hope when I didn't really have much at the time and made me remember that there's still a future. I would sort of always linger on the idea that in the grand scheme of the universe I'm nothing so life is pointless, but if you look at it a certain way that's really liberating. Plus in the grand scheme of something as small as someone's own life, a couple years isn't all too much.
After that I got into literature way more than I did previously and started thinking a lot about other sort of heavy concepts that either made life seem way cooler or were horrible and crushing and made me want to die and a lot of that probably traces back to Demian.
I know for certain that I wouldn't be the same person I am today without that book, and maybe I wouldn't be here at all, so I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to read it.
I reread it at least once a year now and each time its a good chance to reflect and I learn something new about myself each time.

 

[Synically]

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
These two genre-defining masterpiece books made me turn over a new leaf,opened my 6th sense,made me a better person, changed my life for the better and last but most important part,these books made reconsider committing suicide,now Ill do it even sooner new cap is at 30.

 

[Murgen]

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki. A melancholic book. I remember picking this up from the library solely for the name, I didn't know anything about Soseki or about old Japanese literature for that matter, but the characters felt so human and so well written, it didn't feel like a book from 100 years ago, the struggle of loneliness even when you have company make me realize that we are always uncomfortable with ourselves and with our thoughts. “It is not you in particular that I distrust, but the whole of humanity."

No longer human by Osamu Dazai. this one really hit me. When you try your best to be someone else, you end up feeling empty, you can't empathize or have a real connection with people, you are always on guard, expecting ulterior motives behind every little action. That feeling of being judged by everyone and at all times is a heavy load, Dazai tried to kill himself several times always ending in a failure, until 1943 when he finally took his life. “The weak fear happiness itself.”

 

[Fuzzbox]

I have come across a book where I have thinking more of my own behaviour towards others, it gave a little eye opener with how you as an individual and part as a group might react towards each others.
It's a book called Stalking the Soul by Marie-France Hirigoyen.


But it's another book, or rather a play I have read that once had me be unable to read other books for a week because of the content - not because I was soul searching, but because this book still gives excellent reflection about a relationship and people in a society in general (I know I am pushing it bit right now, but I struggle to describe it )
The book is called A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

 

[sanctuary]

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.

 

[Sleeper]

Yojokun: Life Lessons from a Samurai by Kaibara Ekiken--specifically, the William Scott Wilson translation. I was probably sixteen or seventeen when I read this book, and while I wasn't exactly a shut-in, I also wasn't a very active kid. Didn't really take very good care of myself beyond the expected basics of hygiene. I had started taking an interest in samurai culture on an academic level, as opposed to just what I saw in games, anime, or manga, so the title of this book caught my eye. I figured it would be some kind of journal, or perhaps a treatise on techniques and tactics like the Book of Five Rings. So when it turned out to be a health and wellness manual, I was pretty surprised, but it was written in such an informal, and at times, poetic way that I didn't mind reading it all the way through.

That said, I don't know exactly what it was that made those two wires in my head connect, but reading that book really made me value taking care of my body and my health. For fun, I decide to follow some of the more reasonable routines in the book, and adapt some of the more outdated ones to modern standards. Not only did I actually start feeling better in a general sense--more energetic, I felt more well-rested after a night's sleep, less irritable--I actually even lost a little bit of weight, which I needed at the time. While I don't follow the book to the letter to this day, I still use some of the techniques I learned from it in conjunction with a more personalized, modernized fitness regimen and diet. Here's one from the book that might benefit the rest of the avid readers in this thread: If your eyes feel tired or strained, rub your hands together until your palms are warm, close your eyes, and then gently press your palms to them. May not work for everyone, but it's definitely helped me out.

There are a couple of other books I could mention, but I think this is enough for a first post.

 

[Irynadreamer]

I have the same situation in my life. I keep criticizing others, but I think the problem is in myself.

 

[Albwin]

The book I would see as the most life-changing or rather life-defining for me is an animal encyclopedia entitled "Faszination Tierwelt" ("Fascination Animal World" in German). It is, in fact, the German translation of "The Kingfisher Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia" by David Burnie according to the impressum. This book was a Christmas present I got from my Grandmother when I was 9 years old. As I had yet to learn English at that point of time German was definitely the best choice of language since you began learning English in Grade 5 in Germany and I was still in Grade 4 that Christmas. Whatever, albeit me being deeply interested in animals even prior, this book is undoubtedly one of the main factors that lead to me deciding to become a zoologist at age 10. And what shall I say? A zoologist I have become.

 

[Ryoumiya]

For me there's more than 1 book that altered my life, the first one is "Microsoft .NET Programming" given to me when i was a kid without that book i would be the same person today, because it though me how to program and practically effecting my choice in uni. The second one would be K-ON volume 2(i think) that my friend brought to school without it i wouldn't have found all-of this and made a lot of friends along the way, The last one would be the encyclopedia book series that my school library have, i used to read that book whenever i have the time my favourite was space history section since they have a large collection of it.

I have read many books but those books are the most prominent in terms of life-changing since without both of them i would be here writing this.

 

[Soseki]

Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar, the Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky and the Human Condition by Hannah Arendt, they are the three major influences of the perspective I hold of myself, what I do, and the world around me.

 

[axelTHEGREAT]

the Republic and the Apology, I'm not a fan of philosophy-related tbh. But it created my own POV for what is behind of "Republic" word on every nation that has the name on it, call it short: the Art of Governing People
Uh, the Apology created my formal style of speaking to others.

 

[QuantumLeap215]

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

I think it gave me a new perspective on what it means to and why we have to struggle.

On a more lighthearted note, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of my absolute favorite books to quote. And to this day whenever I'm feeling particularly unmotivated I throw on Sorairo Days and get pumped up by Gurren Lagann.

 

[mrf]

Books? What do you mean by book? All I can see is a flat screen on my hand.

Joke aside its hard for me to remember a name or a title of a book, either me who's having trouble at remembering names or i don't really much pay attention to it(not to care/don't care) But there a couple books that I can't remember, it doesn't really change my life but how I see things, maybe it does but I don't really pay attention to the past.

I have a question, is it really the book that change your life or is it you who borrowing wisdom of the book, that lead you to change your life or maybe, times the one who changed you? Do you believe that a couple hundred or thousand sentences change your life?

Idk tbh it depends on one perspective. What i want to say is yes there's a book that change me, to this extent. that book is so random and there's so much people that write that book and have yet to be finished.