Books That Changed My Life

[Scotsman]

Another I loved as a youngster is

Lord of the Flies

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Hooah! 

[Lord Finger]

Excellent choice Warrior_Monk! I'm a big Heinlein fan and didn't read Starship Troopers until after seeing the movie. What a surprise that was.

[Scotsman]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Hooah! 

The first book I read after I joined the Army in 1984!

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Hooah! 

The first book I read after I joined the Army in 1984!

Crom's thunder Scotsman! We joined at the same time. 


And for those that have seen the movie, but not read the book, the movie is pure Hollywood heresy! Read the book!! As Sterling Scot can attest to! 

[Whistler Fred]

Excellent choice Warrior_Monk! I'm a big Heinlein fan and didn't read Starship Troopers until after seeing the movie. What a surprise that was.

I've read and considerably enjoyed the book.  I haven't seen the movie (or want to).

[Charlotte Rowan]

Excellent choice Warrior_Monk! I'm a big Heinlein fan and didn't read Starship Troopers until after seeing the movie. What a surprise that was.

I've read and considerably enjoyed the book.  I haven't seen the movie (or want to).

I really hope the book was better than the movie. Yikes, was it ever terrible!

[Toki Bloodaxe]

For me, three books will always stand out.
    "1984" by George Orwell. The more that I read it, the more it seems to make sense to me...especially in this day and age.
    "The War of the Worlds"  by H.G. Wells. Probably one of the best books ever written. It is timely, thought provoking, and frightening in its scope, even today.
    " The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey. Outrageous, entertaining, and certainly thought provoking.
    I would also like to reccomend anything written by the English science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton. His works include..."the Night's Dawn Trilogy" , "Fallen Dragon" and "Judas Unchained"....all VERY worthwhile.

[biggerstaff]

I can name a lot of books I like, but few that changed my life / way of thinking. Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" went a long way to forming my political outlook, but probably the one line that most effected me is from a book I read forty years ago...and I have no idea who wrote it or the title. "man should strive to evolve from a human being to a humane being'. I thought it made sense then and I still do. Come to think of it, I am more likely to take snippets or lines from various source, rather than whole books:
"You see things as they are and you ask Why? But I dreams things that never have been and I ask Why not?" (attributed to GB Shaw, JFK)

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" & "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity" (Thoreau, "Walden Pond"

"The Bible is a book - a good book. But it is not the only book" (Inherit the wind, play loosely based on the Scopes monket trial)

"Twas a dark and stormy night" (Snoopy)


Other Gorgeous Books:

"Tea with a Black Dragon" R.A. MacAvoy
"The Stars My Destination" Alfred Bester
"The Prophet" Kahlil Gibran
"Dead God Dancing" Anne Maxwell (good luck finding this one)

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

I can't say this movie changed my life, as in what the original intent of this thread was.  But it certainly made an impact that lasts to this day, and probably beyond.

I am not a horror movie person.  I am a big scaredy-cat.  By today's standards, it is probably considered very cheesy, but I was so scared when I originally saw The Amityville Horror many, many years ago.

I totally freaked out when the clock turned 3:15 a.m. and all the weirdness started.  From back then to this day, when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, if the clock says 3:15, I put the covers over my head and wait until enough time has passed until it will read 3:16.  If the clock says 3:14 or any time close to that, I rush into the bathroom (or kitchen to get water, or whatever) and stay there until I'm sure it doesn't say 3:15 on the clock anymore.

So I guess it has changed my life in 1 way, though not for the better.

[Lady Nicolette]

You just reminded me of something that the thought of still makes the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand up (yep, it's happening right now, not that I'm all that hairy, but what is there stands quite at attention at this).  I can't remember what movie or tv show this came from (The Turn of the Screw?  A Twilight Zone? and it may have been a book or short story originally anyway), but there's a scene where an analog clock is running backwards.  Gives me chills!

[Capt Spleen]

The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck

Helped with my spirituality, philosphy and relationships.......

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

You just reminded me of something that the thought of still makes the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand up (yep, it's happening right now, not that I'm all that hairy, but what is there stands quite at attention at this).  I can't remember what movie or tv show this came from (The Turn of the Screw?  A Twilight Zone? and it may have been a book or short story originally anyway), but there's a scene where an analog clock is running backwards.  Gives me chills!

Off topic a little bit, but here goes.

We have a clock that was made in 1950, before I was born.  It was my dad's that he used in his little deli.  It looks like the kind of clocks that used to be in all the school classrooms during the 1960's & 70's or in train stations.  About almost a 2 ft. diameter circle.  He closed his store in 1969 & I inherited it for my college dorm when I went away to college years later, then kept it when I got married.

It is a real trooper.  Whenever there's a power outage, there's a metal circle in the back that you just give a twirl to, & the second hand and the other hands start moving again.  Just this past week, something happened that I never saw before in all the years.  We had a power outage due to a storm.  I was home, upstairs, and was there when the lights flickered and went out for only a couple of minutes.  When I went downstairs later, the clock had started on its own and was running backwards.

It's hard for me to get behind it and hold it out from the wall to reset it -- it's all metal and very heavy -- so until my husband was able to get home, we had the clock that really did run backwards.

Now . . . . back to topic!

[Lady Nicolette]

More chills here, Renee!  What a great story!

[Lord Virgo]

There's a series by George RR Martin called " A Song of Ice and Fire".  It really struck a chord with me and got me started reading fantasy.

The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
Siddartha by Herman Hesse
A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond Fiest.  There is a part in it where he desrcibes space and time but in a fantasy sense and it just really opened some doors for me.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Call of the Wild by Jack London