What are some of the best life-changing books?

[kalorfafy]

It is a very difficult choice to pick just one. Every book brings a change in you consciously or unconsciously. Since I have to pick one, I would say The Last Lecture. It has been a eye opener for me.

[Sinewmire]

Any book, sufficiently large, dropped from high enough.

How about The Mysterious Stranger? Mark Twain utterly shatters the class system and socio-economic unfairness in a slim fiction volume.

[Otomodachi]

Slaughterhouse 5.

[Demica Fatali]

Mine was a series VERY few know about called the Windrose Chronicles. Loved those books so much!

[2D8HP]

The 2001 California Plumbing Code is the book that probably most changed my life.

[Some Android]

Any book, sufficiently large, dropped from high enough.

HA! I see what you did there! And I approve!

How about The Mysterious Stranger? Mark Twain utterly shatters the class system and socio-economic unfairness in a slim fiction volume.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most) how faithful is this adaptation?

As for me, well the initial question is very subjective but here are mine:

-Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus
-1984
-Brave New World
-Fahrenheit 451 (although I had to read it multiple times before the themes truly set in for me)
-The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*
-The Picture of Dorian Gray*

*These two works I went into knowing the twist at the end, but they nonetheless still have a deep impact on me.

[theMycon]

It's quite likely that "when" has as much to do with it as "what", but for over a decade any time I try to excuse doing something morally questionable, my brain has asked "You don't want to turn into Jurgen, do you"? More than once, I've gone to an e-book of it to look up a quote, got distracted reading the chapter, and then got lost in it for a few hours, only catching myself when I reach the Heaven chapters and start crying uncontrollably.

Similarly, the tame fox conversation from The Little Prince is running through my head pretty much constantly.

[Mightymosy]

Depending on where you stand in that particular aspect of life - Wetlands

[Vinyadan]

HA! I see what you did there! And I approve!



On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most) how faithful is this adaptation?

As for me, well the initial question is very subjective but here are mine:

-Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus
-1984
-Brave New World
-Fahrenheit 451 (although I had to read it multiple times before the themes truly set in for me)
-The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*
-The Picture of Dorian Gray*

*These two works I went into knowing the twist at the end, but they nonetheless still have a deep impact on me.

Given the sci-fi/dystopia trend, I suggest Zamyatin's "We". There also are Animal Farm and a book by Jack London that I haven't read yet, The Iron Heel.

The Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a bit like the little prince.

[Aedilred]

It's quite likely that "when" has as much to do with it as "what"

I think this is the/a key point. A book you read as an adolescent is much more likely to be life-changing than one you read as an adult or even as a child, because you're a much more malleable person. But still.

Two that stand out for me, one fiction and one non-fiction:

High Society by Ben Elton. Odd that a fairly trashy novel by a faintly ridiculous smut-monger who hasn't been funny in fifteen years should make the cut. But I found it deeply thought-provoking and I think it has done more to shape my attitude towards its subject matter than anything else I've ever read.

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. To be fair, I don't know to what extent this changed my opinions rather than merely confirmed some I'd tentatively held for some time. But I think it stands alone in my recollection in its impact on me - and there wasn't just one message I took from it which informed my thought thereafter, but at least two fundamental ones, and probably more that I just haven't accurately credited.

[Some Android]

Given the sci-fi/dystopia trend, I suggest Zamyatin's "We". There also are Animal Farm and a book by Jack London that I haven't read yet, The Iron Heel.

To quote both the sitcom Archer and its titular character:

No it isn't. It's an allegorical novella about Stalinism by George Orwell and spoiler alert - it sucks. Although I was talking about an actual animal farm.

I actually do love that work and decided not to list it lest this thread become too political.

[Sinewmire]

HA! I see what you did there! And I approve!

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most) how faithful is this adaptation?

Thanks, I couldn't resist

Accuracy out of 10? About a 2. I loved that claymation, it's good but it's message came down to "Gosh, isn't that Satan guy evil?" which was cool, but hardly an original message. Pretty much only the last line is accurate to the book.

The book is more about an outsider's (in the D&D sense, too!) perspective on our world. Yes, the outsider is a small boy called Satan, but the events and discussion of the book are very different.

[aandy]

Think and Grow Rich

I clearly haven't put the methods into practice, but it has considerably altered my view on many things

[Dienekes]

Hmm, for me personally? Or objectively life-changing books?

Objectively life-changing you gotta go with some of the ones that define people's entire worldview: Bible, Quran, Torah, works of Confucius, works of Buddha, God Delusion and so on.

More novel focused there's probably something from James Joyce, Orwell, Vonnegut, The Alchemist, Fountainhead, To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Prince, etc.

But for me personally, I've read just about all of the above list and I don't think any have dramatically changed my life. The book that probably had the most important life-changing influence on my life was Pawn of Prophecy of all things. It sparked my interest in reading when I first thought it was boring as a child. Was my introduction to genre fiction which has been my primary source of joy reading since. Very probably affected my views on morality to this day. It also directly lead to my studying of actually history, which became the focus of my adult life.

So yeah. Pawn of Prophecy, a pretty silly generic not even particularly good baby's first fantasy book.

[Aedilred]

But for me personally, I've read just about all of the above list and I don't think any have dramatically changed my life. The book that probably had the most important life-changing influence on my life was Pawn of Prophecy of all things. It sparked my interest in reading when I first thought it was boring as a child. Was my introduction to genre fiction which has been my primary source of joy reading since. Very probably affected my views on morality to this day. It also directly lead to my studying of actually history, which became the focus of my adult life.

So yeah. Pawn of Prophecy, a pretty silly generic not even particularly good baby's first fantasy book.

It has to be said about David Eddings: he wrote very generic, pretty unimaginative fantasy. But he wrote it rather well.

While I'd always loved reading and I'd always loved fantasy, his novels were one of my first experiences of combining the two. It was quite a revelation to realise that fantasy could be fun and didn't have to be as heavy as Tolkien.

[Vinyadan]

For me, Joe Dever's Dawn of the Dragons was like that. Although it was more like "books can be exalting!". I had not yet read Tolkien, back then, and probably was the first anglophone high fantasy I read.

[2D8HP]

The 2001 California Plumbing Code is the book that probably most changed my life.

Sorry, I missed the "best" part of the question, and the book I listed earlier, while it probably changed my life the most, is just not a "page-turner" by anyone's standards.

So some life changing books, that aren't ones you have to be paid to consider reading?
[Indent]
The 48 page

1977 "Blue book" Basic Dungeons & Dragons

is ultimately the reason that I post to this Forum


Not a book the changed my life, but a history of a time that changed my life:

924 Gilman: The Story So Far

(and yes my real name is in the book).


A Theory of Justice byJohn Rawls

was a text book that belonged to the women I married and I've been with for decades, and part of what made her attractive to me was her library.


The next most life changing books for me were a series of motorcycle repair manuals, as I worked at a motorcycle shop for seven years.


For my current trade:

Installing & Repairing Plumbing Fixtures

and

Plumbing a House: For Pros by Pros by Peter Hemp

are both pretty good.


Labor's Untold Story

may have been the first of many books that I read on a subject of some importance to me, Solidarity forever!


I strongly recommend the book:

Shop Class as Soulcraft,

in order to be less envious of the educated, and I turn to it to remind myself that white collar people have difficulties with their work as well.

In fiction, other than reading stuff like Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath making me cry, and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby making me feel, well wrath, I can't list any fiction as "life changing", but FWLIW the works I've re-read multiple times have included:

The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury


The Charwomen's Shadow

The King of Elfland's Daughter

Time and the Gods
all by Lord Dunsany


Swords and Deviltry

Swords Against Death

Swords in the Mist

Swords Against Wizardry

The Swords of Lankhmar

Swords and Ice Magic

The Knight and Knave of Swords
all by Fritz Leiber


The City in the Autumn Stars

Elric of Melibomé

The Knight of Swords

The Queen of Swords

The King of Swords

Stormbringer

The War Hound and the World's Pain
all by Michael Moorcock


The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings
both by Tolkien

and

The Time Machine
by Wells

I also keep reading different translations of collections of fairy tales, legends, and myths, and also a lot of history, just starting to read A Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England for the second time.

[Some Android]

Do graphic novels count? Because if so Watchmen:

Who makes the world? Maybe the world is not made. Always has been. Always will be. A watch without a craftsman.