LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Critical, You are the only other person I have ever talked to who read this book. I went on a search for a copy of it too, I don't know what ever happened to mine, I remember reading it about 10 times. We must have found the same places in our searches because the only copy I could find was $92.00.
Now I am on a mission to find it. I think I will go hit the used bookstores here tomorrow.
It might sound like a cliche, but "The Catcher and the Rye" really opened my eyes when I first read it in middle school .. even when I read it most recently, it doesn't cease to amaze me.
"Tuesdays with Morrie" had a pretty meaningful impact on me .. it really makes you appreciate everyone in your life
Don't laugh - this sounds absurd but the book that changed my life was read when I was 9 and titled: Trixie Belden and The Secret of the Mansion.
It changed my life because before then I read because I was told to, not because I wanted to. That first book in the Trixie Belden mystery series open my eyes to the joy and wonder of books. So many of the books mentioned here have truly inspired my life, and added to that first experience, opening my head and heart to the world I had never before known.
When I met John Griffin, a speaker at a youth conference when I was 14 just after having read his book "Black Like Me" - I realized the profound influence that reading has on our lives. I had wept through reading his book, and knew when I saw him how real every word was - shocking and horrifying as racism is.
Maybe I would have discovered the power of words eventually, the influence a great book can hold; but that first Trixie Belden book unfolded in me the passion to read. From there, I have learned and grown from many wonderful books that have helped shape my ideas and my life, but Trixie inspired my love to read.
What a great thread!
I have to agree with everyone about To Kill a Mockingbird, it's a classic that is as enjoyable when you read it for the tenth time as it was the first time.
I also love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy both of which I read when I was in the fifth grade. They paint such a vivid picture of another world, it seems like a history not fiction.
I also loved Little Women, and Pride and Prejudice. Both books, while I loved them for their romance, taught me to appreciate being a modern woman. And that I am lucky that I'm not defined by the man I marry.
When I was in high school, we had to read Hamlet. I was so surprised that I absolutely loved it. It created a love for Shakespeare that I've never lost. I loved that even in his darkest tragedies, they were still off color and silly jokes.
But the book that has been most influential on me is Alice in Wonderland. It is just so interesting and wacky. Alice made me into an Anglophile. I loved all the tea parties and her total insistence on being "proper" when everyone around her is just nuts. When I read it now as an adult I always find something new.
I am an avid reader so I've read a ton of books-many of which you all have mentioned. I pretty much read whatever I can get my hands on. Many of them carried a very powerful message to me and really made me think. The book that impacted me the most was one I read for my english class my freshmen year of college. It is called When Broken Glass Floats-it is written by someone who survived the Cambodian holocaust. From the moment I read the inscription on the back cover I was enthralled. Somehow in my sheltered childhood I had never even heard of this even happening. I was shocked. It made me realized just how sheltered we all are in the US-we don't learn half of or even hear what is going on in the world and much of it is bad. I have made a point since then of educating myself about how people live, government situations, etc from then on. As hard as it is to read something awful like that that has happened to another human being (and is still happening in many parts of the world) I feel it is so important to be educated about it so things get done to help people! Because of this book, I decided to go to Africa and volunteer and help with whatever way I could! I'm going back someday as soon as I can afford to (and my child is old enough) and I will do what I can to educate people! Sorry to go off, but I don't think any other book I read opened my eyes as much as this one single book!
I Am The Cheese (Robert Cormier), A Separate Peace (John Knowles), Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), and who can forget the Harry Potter series?
Most of the comic books I've read (my current obsession), like Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, the latter especially, have dramatically altered my perspective on things and self-expectations.
I like to think that every book one reads contributes a little part to that individual.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote