Books That Changed/Helped Your Life


GloomyPandaBear's avatar
Has anyone else read a book that changed or helped them with life? What book was it? I have a couple: Perks of Being a Wallflower(Stephen Chbosky), The Fault In Our Stars(John Green), and Thirteen Reasons Why(Jay Asher) My friends and I got super addicted to Perks. So any books like these you've read that you got obsessed with or changed your out look on life?
Comments48
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
kylebjart's avatar
Also Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. Don't read the back cover, just jump straight in and I promise it is worthwhile. The ending will break your heart.
kylebjart's avatar
Highly recommend Herman Hesse with Siddhartha - You will drink the words in very quickly. Follows the lifes journey of Siddhartha and buddhism in general. It will pull your brain apart and put it back together in the most wonderful way. Promise. Also check out the Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain - if you have a Kindle or e-reading device you can pick it up for free and it is a very worthy read indeed. Inspired this freaky bit of claymation; [link]
JericaWinters's avatar
My favorite book is "7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
The-Theory-Liz's avatar
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Identity/Difference by William E. Connolly

Those are philosophy works, and they ALL changed my life (and the person who introduced them to me too).

In terms of works of fiction?
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury--inspired me to start writing
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle- the first chapter book I have ever read (on my own and not for school) and loved every single moment of it.
Far Afield by Susanna Kaysen--super character insights as well as some fantastic prose
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull--a personal favorite and I loved this book for so many reasons.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman--first introduction to Gaiman, and great characters.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens--one of the best books in the English language. Ever.
anything by William Shakespeare who, in all honesty, is a brilliant for the plays and poetry he writes.

There is only one book that has made me cry and that is "A Child Called It" by David Pelzer, and it changed me.

julietcaesar's avatar
Always great to know another Shakespeare fan! :highfive:

I do need to try Charles Dickens though. I gave up on Great Expectations about a third of the way through. Maybe 2013 may be the year to break my Dickens drought. :B
The-Theory-Liz's avatar
:la: Yay!

Try A Tale of Two Cities

A fair bit of warning, it takes TIME to get into Dickens but towards the end...you don't want to stop reading. He's a master of great characters, and I cried when I read this book. It's really good.
julietcaesar's avatar
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak changed my perception of writing forever and also my perception on life as well. To top it off, I met him and was able to tell him to that in person, and he was deeply humbled and wrote that in the autograph I obtained from him. :love:
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
wow that's amazing!
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
wow that's amazing!
I read the lovely bones last year. It waz great, for alot of different reasons. but kinda dark and sorta depressing also. me and one of my best friends read it, it waz one of those books we had been both avoiding.. but decided to read it together and we both got a copy. we had some pretty deep discussions about it. and it kinda brought us closer together. yep life changing, it deffinately waz,in fact i dont think i waz quite prepared to read it.. it didnt help me it just kind of oppened my eyes. and i did cry whill reading it.theres a movie based on it to. now I am obsessed with the hush hush series!! it has a love triangle, supernatural elements, and a female character thats easy to relate to. all the stuff that makes a teen girl novel great :).
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
I can't wait to read that book! Sounds very interesting!
twipplestoast's avatar
"Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25" by Richard Paul Evans. Though I'm not too fond of the basic format and structure, the book itself, both one and two, is an awesome read. The struggles that young Michael faces as a young adult, and then having his mother (his only parent) taken away from him was really quite sad. But then how he handled it and that he wasn't going to sit down and do nothing was very uplifting. Then he discovers that he's not the only one with such powers as he has, which had caused him quite a bit of heart ache throughout his life. It just goes to show that you don't have to have a book full of violence and darkness to make it entertaining and life changing. Can't wait for book three! :la:
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
Sounds like an amazing book!
CandyDeChocolate's avatar
Yamato Nadeshiko, Kuragehime, and Death Note :) they are all mangos, i don' know if they count as books ;P but they have change my points of view about life :)
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. It's a long story but...let's just say it's a book that made it okay for me not to have all the answers. Maybe we spend our whole lives asking the questions. That can be okay too.

The characters within the book are some of the most real, vulnerable, difficult people I've ever met. I think about them a lot, and I read that book years ago.

Then, ah, this is going to sound super geeky, but, ah, when I was eleven, I read the story collectionMinority Report by Philip K. Dick, and it blew my mind. It completely re-oriented me as a writer and as a thinker. Never before had I read a story where the "star" of the story is not a character, but an idea. And here was Philip K Dick with 20 such stories, with each idea more bizzarre and profound and wonderful than the last. The fun of the story was exploring the idea, seeing where these strange and sometimes terrifying thoughts could take me.

Freaking Philip K. Dick, man. Why on earth is my dream job "science journalist," huh? That--that's not practical! That's a terrible dream job! I blame Mr. Dick. And my sister, for leaving that book on the kitchen table when I was a young and impressionable youth.
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
They both sound like amazing books to read! Especially The Sparrow because I have a bit of an issue with having the need to know all the answers to my questions but it's not really helping me at all especially now. Anyways, thanks for commenting! I'm definitely going to read these books now :)
Lucy-Merriman's avatar
You're welcome! I hope you like them :)
revampyre's avatar
The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene and Redeeming Grace by Erin Sinnott for sure. I think they are probably two of the only books that ever really touched me.
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
The Fault In Our Stars got me right in the feels! It didn't make me feel sad at all, just numb! The weird thing about John Green is that his books can kill your heart yet in his vlogs he seems like the happiest person in the world yet you'd expect him to be miserable. At least that's how my friends see it. Anyways, I've never heard of Redeeming Grace sounds good though. Mind giving me a bit of a review on it? :)
revampyre's avatar
Sure will! It's a great piece that takes place during WWII in Germany about a young man who comes home from the war for the holidays and ends up trying to protect a young girl that had been in hiding. I don't want to say too much to spoil anything that happens or not, but it's an AMAZING read. Highly rated on Amazon, too from the few reviews that it got ;) It's really worth a read. I promise that you won't be able to put it down once you start!
GloomyPandaBear's avatar
I better get started on that then! :D thanks!
revampyre's avatar
Anytime! :D I know it's available on Amazon right now, maybe still in stores since it's around the holidays, but Amazon would be your best bet for picking it up.
Eevolution150's avatar
Redeeming Grace by Erin Sinnott. I honestly can't even describe how beautiful this book was, especially since it dealt with a lot of hard issues and made it into something beautiful. I haven't been able to put it down since I got it Christmas and I have to say it's probably my favorite book as of right now.