A book that changed your life/perspective/etc?

[tealery]

IIRC that means you started two years before the author did!

Dang if true then I guess I'm winning (winning what? idk)

 

[melchi]

Lamentations, whenever I think things are bad for me, I just need to read about a guy whose problems are 100x worse than mine. It puts things in perspective.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Dang if true then I guess I'm winning (winning what? idk)

If I remember what I read at the time, he started writing "Eragon" at twelve, finished his first book at 14, had a teacher submit it to an agent friend on his behalf and he had it sold at 15, while he was about 1/4 of the way into his second book. By the time it started selling internationally, he was barely 18, and I believe celebrated his 20th birthday by signing the contract for the (sub-par) movie.

Having read Eragon and the first sequel but nothing past that, I would have guessed he was 14 or 15 when he started; much better than most kids younger than that could do but definitely not the work of an adult writer.

 

[tealery]

If I remember what I read at the time, he started writing "Eragon" at twelve, finished his first book at 14, had a teacher submit it to an agent friend on his behalf and he had it sold at 15, while he was about 1/4 of the way into his second book. By the time it started selling internationally, he was barely 18, and I believe celebrated his 20th birthday by signing the contract for the (sub-par) movie.

Having read Eragon and the first sequel but nothing past that, I would have guessed he was 14 or 15 when he started; much better than most kids younger than that could do but definitely not the work of an adult writer.

Ha yeah absolutely! That’s interesting. I think I vaguely knew some of that but definitely not that much detail. Thanks for sharing it!!

 

[Viator]

Damien by Herman Hess
He's an author who deeply explored human spiritualism in a number of his novels. This one explored gnostism and sent me down a rabbit hole of obscure history, and made me realize just how much deeply old concepts still affect us.

 

[John_Owl]

Damien by Herman Hess
He's an author who deeply explored human spiritualism in a number of his novels. This one explored gnostism and sent me down a rabbit hole of obscure history, and made me realize just how much deeply old concepts still affect us.

sounds similar to one I read called WIld Animus by Rich Shapero.

Wild Animus : A Novel Hardcover Rich Shapero 9780971880108| eBay

Wild Animus : A Novel Hardcover Rich Shapero. Condition is "Very Good". Shipped with USPS Media Mail. Box 38 no 11

www.ebay.com

(sorry about the Ebay link. Amazon only has the modern edition, which chances the MC name and story significantly).

This one is about a guy, Sam Altman, who is searching for deeper truths than his college professors could provide. He searches books, music his relationship, LSD (It's the 60s and 70s). The whole novel is basically his search for hidden, primal truths.

 

[3guanoff]

The Story of a Nobody. I first read it in school and I did not understand it. My reading and command of the language were very poor. But it must have stuck in my mind. I remember feeling that the protagonist was too passive.

I read it again a few years after leaving the army. Someone threw it away and I picked it up.
Reading it, I thought I understood it. It inspired me to do some foolish, meaningless things. I left my home behind and went to find better paying work.

I did not touch it for a good two decades. Then I found it again during a move. I read it and became an alcoholic.

 

[Gray_Mann]

House in the Shadows.
I don't remember the name of the author, and I've searched for it online for years, but the synopsis of every book named House in the Shadows that I find online, sounds absolutely nothing like what I read. I just remember the book had a solid red cover, black binding, and the rather plain two-story Victorian looking home on the cover. Very minimalist in design. Between 300-340 pages.

I read it the first time when I was only 13, and it inspired me to attempt to be "heroic," or at least what amounts to heroism to a young teenager.

I read it again at 19 and realized I had missed one of the underlying messages, which was of course, "pick your battles wisely because you can't fight them all." Using that knowledge and realization, I proceeded to pick a fight that seemed worthy, but still landed me in prison for a time.

I read it again at age 25, found it in the prison library, and realized I had once again, missed yet another hidden message in the text. "Don't pick a battle, you aren't sure you can win. However, if you must fight a losing fight, don't fight it fairly. Honor is useless to the vanquished." Once I was released, the realization that I had missed something so simple, among other things, sent me into some dark places.

I'm now 30, and I've discovered that "fighting fairly" has absolutely no meaning to me anymore. Honor and chivalry are dead and have been for quite some time. I clung to ideals that only I found value in. This was pointless.

 

[TreasureHouse]

I remember reading this sci-fi book for an elective, and I thought to myself "This book is terrible! I can do better than this!"

That bad, but inspiring book brought ruin to my notes and right arm during lectures. I would let my imagination run wild and I have a series of stories and ideas fragmented among 20 or so notebooks.

Years later at my parent's house, I stumbled upon the stack of saved notebooks and the writing spark reignited.

I figured rather than let the ideas rot, I owe it to my younger self to at least bring one of them to life.

Of course several years later, my skills have atrophied, but I'm working on that.

I figured I'd create a few shorter stories as a rust remover, but that's still a work in progress

And that is how I ended up here.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Oh, forgot about one of the most important books I read, at least in my formative years, my introduction to both the late Robert Heinlein and Science Fiction (before that I was just fantasy and kid detective stuff, including my favorite series, The Three Investigators, though it lost something after it changed to that from Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators) - The Star Beast. That story stuck with me and opened me up to other books by Heinlein (many of which I was not ready to read at that age, but I still tried), and other science fiction stuff as well, as well as concepts of alien races with more than two genders, and government conspiracies. Suspect my grandmother was a little disappointed since I was supposed to spend a week with her and spent most of it reading that book.

 

[greyblob]

48 laws of power
down and under in paris and london
night watch
the old man and the sea
the blade itself (glotka especially)

if there's 1 significant book that changed my life it'd unironically be everybody loves large chests. its what got me into reading webnovels and eventually paperback. the list above provided different perspectives and viewpoints.