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books that changed your life.

finished john irving's the world according to garp today. Not very life-changing, but silly and gross as it is, it still provides some food for thought- the process of writing and creating, lust (affairs, multiple gory rapes and a lot of other sick stuff) vs asexuality. tolerance vs intolerance, transsexuals, femanazis, ...
 
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
I'm glad I only got to read this book now...it resonates with me at this point in my life more than if I had read it in the past.
I read a few pages a day and it's really enlightening.
<3
 
the count of monte cristo (9th grade) inspired me to try and make hash, which completely altered the course of my high school career ;)
 
That's awesome IGNVS.

I was inspired to mix coffee and kava kava (kava-java) for my morning beverage after reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, where he makes it up.
 
Zahir and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. After reading these books, I know what I want from my life and relationships and how to aim at them. I recommend these to everyone!
 
Best books I've read this year & I rate them both pretty highly are Lila -(R.Pirsig) courtesy of MTGG - & Dune (author forgotton for the moment :o ) - a book I wasn't expecting much from - there's plenty to it tho.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
That's awesome IGNVS.

I was inspired to mix coffee and kava kava (kava-java) for my morning beverage after reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, where he makes it up.
Click to expand...

that sounds real good i might have to try that

Lucy Ford said:
Zahir and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. After reading these books, I know what I want from my life and relationships and how to aim at them. I recommend these to everyone!
Click to expand...

yes the alchemist is one of my favorites!
 
there are plenty of books that intrigued me and tickled my imagination, but as far as book that actually "changed" my life?

Ishmael- Daniel Quinn
 
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins.

Read it last year in college. Every bit read as an amazing revelation. Only have to read the first 40 pages or so and all of the knowledge from school was finally put together to explain life.
 
Here are a few of the books that initially interested me and drove me towards seeking a better understanding of mind.

1) Be Here Now - Ram Dass

Perhaps the quintessential 'guide' or 'promoter' for making a 'transition' from the psychedelic to the spiritual.

2) Freedom From The Known - Krishnamurti

A shorter text laying out in plain language a non-dual view and some of the limitations and problems of ordinary relative perception.

3) A Brief History of Everything - Ken Wilber

Wilber lays out his conceptual framework which maps out human spiritual development across all traditions. Wilber shows the interaction between personal subjective experience, personal objective experience, shared group subjective experience and shared group objective experience.

4) Liberation In The Palm Of Your Hand - Pabongka Rinpoche

A class of text in Tibetan Buddhism known as Lam Rim, or stages of the path. This text lays out the entire Buddhist path, from the perspective of one Tibetan tradition. In particular this Lam Rim text is aimed to be used as a practical guide for conducting analytical and stabilization meditation.
 
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-zinn

--I really don't read a lot but I am starting to as I have more time

OMG - and by the way its my 500th POST YEAH!
 
Blink- Malcom Gladwell
Freakanomics- Malcom Gladwell
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safron
all the Chuck Palahnuik
 
The folowing books have influenced me in different ways for different reasons throughout my life:

As a child:
Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Caroll)
Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyle)
The Greek myths

As a teenager:
The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky)
Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie)
Don Quixote (Cervantes)
The Collected works of Oscar Wilde
Lolita (Nabokov)

As an adolescent:
The Discovery of Heaven (Harry Mulish)
Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)
The Secret History (Donna Tartt)
On The Road (Kerouac)
Naked Lunch (Burroughs)
Dangerous Liaisons (Laclos)

As a young adult:
The Illuminatus Trilogy (Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea)
Confessions of a Mask (Yukio Mishima)
A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn)
The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)

If I had to nominate one it would probably be The Brothers Karamazov
 
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