The Books That Changed Your Life

[pointup]

Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Walden by Henry David Thoreau (I confess I've only read select parts, one day I will trudge through it in its entirety, i love Thoreau.. esp his essay "Civil Disobedience")

 

[December_25th]

I also loved To Kill A Mockingbird. As well as Of Mice and Men. I read both in high school and didn't appreciate them until much later, but they are wonderful.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant is one of my favourite books.

 

[fouroclock]

The Stranger - Albert Camus
The Butterfly Plague - Timothy Findley
The Cathcer in the Rye - JD Salinger

 

[handbag Whore]

Gone with the wind -- my first "real" book/novel...it inspired me to read more classics and helped me to become the romantic i am today

 

[eostre]

Kathy Acker´s Empire of the Senseless really changed my view on literature in general, and I still love that book so much everytime I read it. Same with Queer by William Burroughs.
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison made me realize how dramatic, direct and intense writing can be.
And everything by Neil Gaiman is just beautiful

 

[tifa]

catcher in the rye, 1984, fear and loathing in las vegas and the virgin suicides.

 

[kellynjane]

Nausea and Les Jeux Sont Faits by Jean-Paul Sartre.

 

[kellynjane]

And oh, I agree with On The Road! I love Kerouac, even if he was pretentious as hell. It's not a book, but poetry by Jack Gilbert is seriously breathtaking. And since I can't seem to stop myself, I'll throw Annie Dillard's essays in there also.

 

[shellze_07]

Little Women
~Louisa M. Alcott

 

[Diamond Star]

On The Road by Jack Kerouac- Really inspired me...I found the way it was written was so different to anything I'd read before...and I loved the mix of love, friendship, travel and music

The Great Gatsby-I was mainly reading more modern authors before I read this, but I loved this book so much I went on to discover many classic authors for myself

 

[fashionista-ta]

love in the time of cholera remains one of the very few books i've never managed to finish reading


the kite runner- khaled hosseni
the time traveler's wife- audrey niffenberger

I just loved The Time Traveler's Wife ... tell us how it changed you please

For me ...

Simple Abundance by Sarah ban Breathnach
The Sensual Home--Ilsa Crawford
John Bradshaw's books
Martha Stewart rolleyes
Goodbye, Columbus--Philip Roth
+ more ...

 

[fashionista-ta]

No doubt which book!

b*tch: In praise of difficult women by Elizabeth Wurtzel.
This book made me change my view of feminism, and I've tried to be this b*tch she's writing about ever since I read it over a year ago. This book made me really proud to be a woman, and much more secure with myself. All honour to Miss Wurtzel.



I can't come up with any book that has changed me so much as this right now, even though there's no doubt in the world how much books in general has influenced, teached, raised and inspired me since the day I learned to read.

Thanks for reminding me that I should add Camille Paglia to my list. I guess I should read this book

 

[snowqueen]

To kill a mockingbird .. my favourite book

 

[snowqueen]

you have got me excited to read that book, we will be reading it in class by april

I read it in school for my gcses coursework ... but we re-read some bits over and over until i sick of them and picked at it so much tbh i couldnt focus or enjoy it properly ... it was only after i left school and re-read it on my own .. out of my own free will that i properly enjoyed it ... so dont give up hope on it in school because you will pick it to death

 

[kissmesweet]

Angels Fall -- Nora Roberts. It's about a woman who escaped from her past and she opened herself back to love despite witnessing a deathly crime that killed her friends and drove her insane to the mental hospital.

 

[Feline]

Mists of Avalon - it got me back in touch with my spiritual side and made me think about a lot of things differently
Sleepers - how 'the system' can harm for life those it is supposed to help & protect

 

[kissmesweet]

I finished Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult last month and it was phenomenal. It was about a DA whose son was raped by the local priest. It was dark, but it emphasized how a parent would go through measures to protect their own children and how you can turn into someone you never thought you could be within just a terrible incident.

 

[keroppi]

Summer Crossings - Truman Capote (not so popular like In Cold Blood or Breakfast at Tiffany's but it affects me so much)

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

 

[jadore21dior]

On the Road for sure!
and 1984, The great gatsby, the picture of dorian gray.

 

[chanelnumber5]

To kill a mockingbird .. my favourite book

I love that book so much
I've just finished studying it for my exam and even though we picked it to pieces that made me love it more. Its such a complex, multi-layered book it really helped to give me an appreciation of the book even more. Harper Lee truly was a genius, even nearly 50 years on this book really did change me. It completely opened up my eyes and mind to the world around me and it completely changed my view of people. It really is one of those books that will stay with me forever, particularly because I read it at such a formative age. OK I'll stop gushing now!