Please share any books you've read that have significantly impacted your life. Here's my list:
Fiction:
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Probably my all time favorite novel.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Read this book back in high school and it made me fully understand the horror of the holocaust.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The best coming of age novel ever and one of the best works of Chicano literature.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
A short but entertaining read. One of Steinbeck's best novels imo.
The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
Whether you're a Christian or an atheist you'll get a lot out of reading this book.
Nonfiction:
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
An incredibly insightful text on totalitarian governments. A must read for every student of political science.
How To Prove It by Daniel Velleman
This is an introductory text on mathematical proofs. If you're a math major and you're struggling with real analysis or proofs in general then buy this book. It's the best in it's category and probably my favorite textbook.
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
This book is the reason why I decided to become an economist.
The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
This is the only statistics book I've ever read 'for fun' and I definitely didn't regret it. If you want to know what statistics and forecasting is all about then read this book.
In Search of Schrodingers Cat by John Gribbin
This is really the only 'popular' book on physics I've ever read and it definitely intrigued me and persuaded me to study more about physics.
Books that have impacted your life
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Divine Insight
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Post #2
Fiction:
The Tom Swift series.
I used to read these as a very young boy and they definitely had an impact on my worldview. I lived in a "Tom Swift World" as a young boy. I was very interested in mechanics, physics and inventions.
Spirituality:
I hesitate to call the Bible out as a book that had a large impact on my life. It most certainly did. But it really wasn't the book that had an impact on me, but rather the social belief that the Book was the word of God was what caused me to spend so much time studying the Bible. So the existence of the Bible definitely had a huge effect on my life. But not because of it's contents. Also, I would have to say that ultimately it actually had a negative impact on my life, both when I was a Christian and afterward. So I'm not sure if it should be included or not?
Books by Alan Watts on Eastern Mysticism
I read tons of his books and found him to be a very interesting author. He definitely had a large impact on my life, and his impact was indeed very positive.
The Temple of Witchcraft Series by Christopher Penczak
I didn't read these until quite late in my life. They definitely had an impact on my life as they change how I view witchcraft entirely. I would definitely say that the change was positive. I still use these books as reference and I keep them in an altar that I use for spiritual ceremonies. So I would say that definitely counts as an impact. I probably wouldn't be doing these spiritual ceremonies had I not been introduced to Penczak's books.
Non-Fiction
Way too many to list. This is what I spend the bulk of my time reading.
Physical Thought From the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists
This is one of the very first books I read that really captured my interest in the field of physics. It was basically an anthology of how our physical thought developed up to and including quantum physics.
Euclid's Elements
This book stole my heart and my interest in mathematics has never waned since.
The Philosopher's of Ancient Greece
I don't know if that's a title of a book or not, but I use this just to cover that whole arena. I studied the philosophers of ancient Greece in depth when I was quite young and that also had a large impact on my life. My two favorite Greek Philosophers were Leucippus of Militus and Zeno of Elea. They were my childhood heroes.
Newton's Principia
This is a bit of a cheat actually. I never really sat down and read the Principia. But I did fall in love with the mind of Isaac Newton and I studied every physics book I could find that explained classical Newtonian Mechanics. I've read tons of physics books on these topics so I think it's fair to sum them all up by just citing the Principia because as I understand it, it's all in there.
Special Relativity
After learning about classical physics I learned of the mind of Albert Einstein and he became my next hero. And again, even though there are tons of books with this title, I'm just using this as representative of having spent much time studying the works of Albert Einstein.
At this point I could just go on and on and on listing tons of physics books. But in leu of that I would just like to mention at least two that really had a big impact on my life.
Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorn
I mention this book in particular because it really bought home for me just how well we actually understand the physical nature of spacetime, and how it is that we know what we know.
And the other one I would like to mention is:
Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin
The reason I mention this one is because Lee confirmed the validity many ideas that I had personally been pondering. So, in a way, this book was a "Green Light" for me in having my ideas confirmed by a very famous and prominent physicist.
Like I say, there were many other books that had a profound impact on my life. But I can't list them all here. I've basically been a book worm all my life.
The Tom Swift series.
I used to read these as a very young boy and they definitely had an impact on my worldview. I lived in a "Tom Swift World" as a young boy. I was very interested in mechanics, physics and inventions.
Spirituality:
I hesitate to call the Bible out as a book that had a large impact on my life. It most certainly did. But it really wasn't the book that had an impact on me, but rather the social belief that the Book was the word of God was what caused me to spend so much time studying the Bible. So the existence of the Bible definitely had a huge effect on my life. But not because of it's contents. Also, I would have to say that ultimately it actually had a negative impact on my life, both when I was a Christian and afterward. So I'm not sure if it should be included or not?
Books by Alan Watts on Eastern Mysticism
I read tons of his books and found him to be a very interesting author. He definitely had a large impact on my life, and his impact was indeed very positive.
The Temple of Witchcraft Series by Christopher Penczak
I didn't read these until quite late in my life. They definitely had an impact on my life as they change how I view witchcraft entirely. I would definitely say that the change was positive. I still use these books as reference and I keep them in an altar that I use for spiritual ceremonies. So I would say that definitely counts as an impact. I probably wouldn't be doing these spiritual ceremonies had I not been introduced to Penczak's books.
Non-Fiction
Way too many to list. This is what I spend the bulk of my time reading.
Physical Thought From the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists
This is one of the very first books I read that really captured my interest in the field of physics. It was basically an anthology of how our physical thought developed up to and including quantum physics.
Euclid's Elements
This book stole my heart and my interest in mathematics has never waned since.
The Philosopher's of Ancient Greece
I don't know if that's a title of a book or not, but I use this just to cover that whole arena. I studied the philosophers of ancient Greece in depth when I was quite young and that also had a large impact on my life. My two favorite Greek Philosophers were Leucippus of Militus and Zeno of Elea. They were my childhood heroes.
Newton's Principia
This is a bit of a cheat actually. I never really sat down and read the Principia. But I did fall in love with the mind of Isaac Newton and I studied every physics book I could find that explained classical Newtonian Mechanics. I've read tons of physics books on these topics so I think it's fair to sum them all up by just citing the Principia because as I understand it, it's all in there.
Special Relativity
After learning about classical physics I learned of the mind of Albert Einstein and he became my next hero. And again, even though there are tons of books with this title, I'm just using this as representative of having spent much time studying the works of Albert Einstein.
At this point I could just go on and on and on listing tons of physics books. But in leu of that I would just like to mention at least two that really had a big impact on my life.
Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorn
I mention this book in particular because it really bought home for me just how well we actually understand the physical nature of spacetime, and how it is that we know what we know.
And the other one I would like to mention is:
Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin
The reason I mention this one is because Lee confirmed the validity many ideas that I had personally been pondering. So, in a way, this book was a "Green Light" for me in having my ideas confirmed by a very famous and prominent physicist.
Like I say, there were many other books that had a profound impact on my life. But I can't list them all here. I've basically been a book worm all my life.
[center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
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Overcomer
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Post #3
First and foremost, the Bible. After that, the following:
Fiction:
William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom and As I Lay Dying
Alain Robbe-Grillet's La Jalousie
The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot
All of the above have influenced the way I write. I might also add Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice although it almost ended my writing career before it began. When I read it at age 18, I thought, "I'll never be able to write like that." But later I realized that I don't have to write like her or anybody else. I only have to write like me. So I entered the writing profession.
Non-fiction:
The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis
The memoirs of Frederick Buechner
Walter Lowrie's biography of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and the writings of S. K. himself.
Malcolm Muggeridge's The Third Testament which I saw first a series of documentaries on television about men seeking God -- Augustine, Pascal, William Blake, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard -- in fact it was episode on Kierkegaard that got me interested in him 40 years ago.
There are many other books, both fiction and non-fiction, that hold a special place in my heart, but, as usual, I have run out of time and must head off to do other things.
Good question, WinePusher. I like The Screwtape Letters, too.
Fiction:
William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom and As I Lay Dying
Alain Robbe-Grillet's La Jalousie
The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot
All of the above have influenced the way I write. I might also add Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice although it almost ended my writing career before it began. When I read it at age 18, I thought, "I'll never be able to write like that." But later I realized that I don't have to write like her or anybody else. I only have to write like me. So I entered the writing profession.
Non-fiction:
The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis
The memoirs of Frederick Buechner
Walter Lowrie's biography of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and the writings of S. K. himself.
Malcolm Muggeridge's The Third Testament which I saw first a series of documentaries on television about men seeking God -- Augustine, Pascal, William Blake, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard -- in fact it was episode on Kierkegaard that got me interested in him 40 years ago.
There are many other books, both fiction and non-fiction, that hold a special place in my heart, but, as usual, I have run out of time and must head off to do other things.
Good question, WinePusher. I like The Screwtape Letters, too.
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Excubis
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Post #4
This is my top 10 I don`t read much fiction and for most part other than Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer they never really affect me.
1. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
2. Origin of the Species author unknown(lol)
3. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton
4. Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E.M. Berens
5. 7 Habits of Highly effective People by Stephen R. Covey
6. The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
7. The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
8. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
9. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
10. The Bible all versions and disregarded gospels. by questionable for me.
The bible whether I believe it as gods word doesn`t matter, it has a definite impact on me and my life.
1. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
2. Origin of the Species author unknown(lol)
3. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton
4. Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E.M. Berens
5. 7 Habits of Highly effective People by Stephen R. Covey
6. The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
7. The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
8. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
9. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
10. The Bible all versions and disregarded gospels. by questionable for me.
The bible whether I believe it as gods word doesn`t matter, it has a definite impact on me and my life.
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WinePusher
Post #5
Interesting list. Freakonomics and the Protestant Ethic have been on my reading list for quite some time, and now I'll add 'The Sociological Imagination' to it. I have to say that I have negative views towards sociology in general, but thanks for the recommendation!Excubis wrote:1. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
2. Origin of the Species author unknown(lol)
3. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton
4. Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E.M. Berens
5. 7 Habits of Highly effective People by Stephen R. Covey
6. The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
7. The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
8. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
9. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
10. The Bible all versions and disregarded gospels. by questionable for me.
The bible whether I believe it as gods word doesn`t matter, it has a definite impact on me and my life.
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Box Whatbox
- Apprentice
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Post #7
The books that have hit me hardest, in terms of obliging a serious change in my thinking, include:
Beyond God the Father..Mary Daly.
If This is a Man. Primo Levi.
How Babies Think. Alison Gopnik et al
A Brief History of Time. Stephen Hawking.
Fiction that had a comparable impact:
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Beyond God the Father..Mary Daly.
If This is a Man. Primo Levi.
How Babies Think. Alison Gopnik et al
A Brief History of Time. Stephen Hawking.
Fiction that had a comparable impact:
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Post #8
First things first, ditto to Exubis on the 7 habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey
Also...
Good to great by Jim Collins. Confront the brutal facts!
The leadership lessons of Jesus by Briner and Pritchard
The art of clear thinking and the art of readable writing by Rudolph Flesch
The art of war by Sun Tzu
Anything by Zane Grey or Edgar Allen Poe
And to make me sound smart...
War and peace by Leo Tolstoy
Ok ok I haven't actually read war and peace but it has impacted my life because I've been trying to complete it for a few years now. Its not that I'm not enjoying it its just that its so hard to keep track of all the characters.
Also...
Good to great by Jim Collins. Confront the brutal facts!
The leadership lessons of Jesus by Briner and Pritchard
The art of clear thinking and the art of readable writing by Rudolph Flesch
The art of war by Sun Tzu
Anything by Zane Grey or Edgar Allen Poe
And to make me sound smart...
War and peace by Leo Tolstoy
Ok ok I haven't actually read war and peace but it has impacted my life because I've been trying to complete it for a few years now. Its not that I'm not enjoying it its just that its so hard to keep track of all the characters.
