What book, written in the last 200 years, has had the biggest impact on your life?

Question

What book, written in the last 200 years, has had the biggest impact on your life? Why do you feel others should read it too?

Answer 1

a very strong toss up between "the purpose driven" life and "my utmost for his highest"

joel osteen is an great author that knows how to motivate too.

Answer 2

Well, the book that has had the biggest impact on my life is Stephen King's The Tommyknockers. Now, allow me to explain why.

First, I read that book when I was about 10, and it was my consummate Stephen King book, which would incite a passion that continues today for horror novels.

Second, as I was reading the book - which is about a woman who unearths a strange object in the ground outside her rural home, with undertones of aliens and UFOs all around - I kept thinking to myself, "He wouldn't dare! Stephen King wouldn't dare! There will be a logical explanation for the object and the odd, sometimes horrific incidents plaguing the town." When I finished the book (SPOILER ALERT) and indeed, the object WAS an alien spacecraft, I was floored. He did it. He made the aliens real.

See, up until then, I had read books of ghostly encounters, UFO sightings, etc - but fictional or not, every single one produced a logical, everyday explanation to wrap everything up into a neat little package at the end. Stephen King pushed the envelope completely over the edge. After Tommyknockers, I learned to think outside the box.

Third, upon reading this one, I gobbled up Stephen King novels like candy, eventually moving onto other greats like Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, and some of the less mainstream auithors as well. And all along I thought to myselff, "I wish I could write like this. I wish I could write a book." When I was 12, a voice in my head suddenly spoke up and said, "What's stopping you?"

I have been writing for 18 years, pushing the envelope and making people scratch their heads go "Jeez, where do you come up with this stuff? It's REALLY scary!"

In essence, King's The Tommyknockers, defined me.

I don't know if I would recommend others read Tommyknockers specifically. I think I would just say, "Read something completely outside your norm. Pick up a book you would otherwise never give a second thought to and make yourself read every word, cover to cover. The meat of the subject matter may shock the hell out of you. And you may like that."

Answer 3

Absolutely "The Great Gatsby." After reading this book, and seeing the movie, I really got into checking out the years of my grandparents. The Roaring 20s must have been a blast--crime, illegal booze, a lot of infidelity--that I didn't think was common until the 1960s.

Others should read it for all such a short book has to offer as far as the plot, sub-plots galore, and as a nostalgia (and history) lesson.

Answer 4

"Night" by Elie Wiesel. It is so haunting and honest. True story of a young boy (the author) in a concentration camp during WW2. I do not know how the author had the courage to write it except that maybe reliving those years was somehow therapeutic and he knew that it would benefit mankind.

Everyone should read it because we all need to remember that treating any group of people as inferior or as if they were criminals just because they are not quite the same as you is incredibly wrong. Sometimes, like with the Nazis and the Jews, it is just plain evil.

Answer 5

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Answer 6

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Answer 7

One would be The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh. Just because it has impacted me doesn't mean it will for others.. I don't see why anyone would feel inclined to read it unless they have an interest for Buddhism.

Answer 8

The Kama Sutra

Answer 9

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie.
Its a very uplifting book. I still read it occasionally when I have a depressed period.

Answer 10

I thought this question over and came back to it. I have read alot of books but the one that keeps coming to mind is "Red Dawn"
That one for some reason has really stuck with me.♥

Answer 11

A Gift Of Awakening by Gill Farrer-Halls. It teaches the principals of Buddha wisdom that can be used by anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs. The teachings have taught me to be calmer, kinder and mindful of speaking without thinking so that I hurt no one.