We recently asked our readers what books made the biggest difference in their lives, and we got a great response. Many of the titles are listed below. (The full list can be found at the bottom of this page.) As you review the list, a few trends will leap out. First, our readers have good taste. It’s as simple as that, and we’re truly glad that they’re frequenting this site. Second, it becomes readily apparent that the first great book a child reads can mark him/her for life (an important point to remember for those with kids). Finally, it’s also clear that great books will continue to move and shape you, no matter what your age. So feel free to review this list and find your next life-changer. And for your daily dose of digital culture, please subscribe to our feed.
1984 “was the first book I actually enjoyed reading. It completely blew my mind at the time (I was 16) and it opened my eyes to the power of ideas and to the joy of reading a good book.” — Tim
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
“Wow this book is incredible. At close to 500 pages Bryson covers everything from the moment the universe expanded from the intensely dense matter that was (aka the big bang) to man’s origin. Reading this book has impacted the way I look at everything from bacteria to asteroids.” — Alex
“After reading through these suggestions, I realized there’s a big hole: Poetry! So much poetry has affected my life: Sylvia Plath’s _Ariel_; Campbell McGrath’s _Road Atlas_; James Wright’s _Above the River_; Brenda Hillman’s _Cascadia_…Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Bly… Poetry may not be the “winning pick” here, but it definitely should be celebrated! And not just in April.” — Amanda
“This book reignited the pilot light of my imagination like no other book had done in quite awhile. The whimsy of its narrative, which ended with the utter destruction of our world thanks to mankind, was stark, shocking, yet refreshing when it seemed every other book I read was just an exercise towards getting to a happy ending. Great book!” — Spamboy
Crooked Cucumber - The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
“Although I am not practicing Zen (yet), this book is like my Bible in that I plan to always read over it and reflect upon the messages therein. Suzuki had a humble vision that in order to change this world, we need to change the way people think and live, not just to change the symptoms of what is wrong. Not just to get rid of pop-prejudice and hatred, but to get rid of labels entirely, to `fight’ war and injustice with peace and understanding instead of anger…. That’s just some of the stuff that is shaping the way I think right now.” — Luella
Disturbing the Peace - Vaclav Havel
“I read it as a junior in high school, picked up on the bargain pile at a B. Daltons. It impacted me because it illustrated the concept of learning throughout life and how people can live with dignity. I’ve loaned it out several times and re-bought it at least three times.” — Emmett
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
“…It’s as though that book has taken so much life from the past and made it all tangible to us here in the present. I love the emotional complexity that’s replicated in the grandmother’s and grandfather’s manuscript and letters, how they show how memory is fragmented, overwhelming, and sometimes incomprehensible. Seriously, I could go on and on. And I can think of hundreds of other books that have changed me just as much. It’s just this one has been at the forefront of my mind ever since I read it a couple of months ago.” — Amanda
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
“I think it was the first time I had felt such a bond with a character. I triumphed with [Pip's] successes, felt the blow of failure in his defeats, and felt sorrow when he broke his own principles. I saw values in Pip that I wanted to emulate in my own life — a dedication to pursuing my dreams, overcoming my weaknesses, and treating others respectfully regardless of what frustrations I may have in my own life…” — Jamie
Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World - Richard F. Mollica
“A stellar book released last year that I believe will quietly grow to classic status on par with Victor Frankl and Elie Wiesel… Mollica’s thesis, radical for a professor of medicine, is that humans have the tools to heal themselves from even the worst imaginable traumas. He gently shows the recipe for self-recovery, and reveals that the survivor is, in fact, the greatest hero for us all.” — Megan
“Hersey retells what happens when an atomic bomb falls on your city. Culled from interviews with survivors of the atomic bomb attack, this narrative was originally published as an entire issue of The New Yorker magazine. Haunting.” — Morgan
How to Read a Book - Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
“Quite simply it has enabled me to get more out of the books that I’ve read.” — Greg
It was the first “adult book that I read upon graduating to the adult section of the Municipal Library in Krakow. Having read all the classic science fiction on the shelves, Capote’s matter of fact prose was as disturbing to me as it was new. No aliens here among far away stars but a world almost ordinary and within reach, tangible and so totally frightening. Reading it felt like being caged with a wild animal, a quick fear followed repeatedly by the mind’s pangs of pride to subdue the brute. This was no fiction yet it read stranger than anything else up till then.”
Language in Thought and Action - S.I. Hayakawa
A book that “provides a whole rationale for reading fiction that I have never forgotten. I grew up in a time and a household where reading fiction was analagous to wasting your time. Hayakawa writes of fiction as a tool to increase your experience of life, to increase the number and variety of experiences in your life, your appreciation of those experiences, to understand others and so much more!” — Terry
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
–“It’s for me ‘life imitates art’ because an old lover appeared in my life after 31 years. And if I hadn’t read that book I think I would have refused him.” — Regina
–“Epic. Beautiful. My inspiration to become a writer.” — Valentina
Man’s Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl
“[It] is one of the best books I have read. The book describes the author’s imprisonment in several concentration camps. Faced with terrible suffering and loss he survives by finding meaning in the midst of this. He discovers that all of our freedoms can be taken from us….except one….the freedom to choose how we think and act under the very worst of circumstances.” — Andrea
“A how-to manual of human behaviour, one that should be required reading for all aspiring politicians and leaders.” — Carol
Narrow Road to a Far Province - Basho
“A quarter century ago, I set out on a bicycle trip across North America, and a friend stuck a paperback copy of Basho’s ‘Narrow Road to a Far Province’ in one of my panniers. ‘Narrow Road’ … is a diary kept by the Japanese poet Basho in 1689 as he made a journey into the northern provinces of Japan. When I was in the Sierras, delayed by snow, I read through ‘Narrow Road’ two or three times. I don’t know whether the book affected me more greatly because I was traveling or my traveling affected my perception of the book (one of those zenny questions), but I came away with a much better sense of the journey that we all make through life, both the physical and philosophical journey, and a more humble sense of my place among the sojourners.” — Charlie
Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction - Laura Berman Fortgang
“I’ve read this book 3 times over the past 2 years and it’s allowed me to overcome my fears, realize my dreams and start working toward new goals in my career, relationships, etc. It’s given me the courage to leave the things (marriage, career, etc.) that weren’t working for me and to face the fear of the unknown to start working toward a new future.” — Merlene
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
“Read at 12 or 13 this book certainly opened my eyes to a whole new world.” — Jason
Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Neil Postman
“One title that has had a big impact on me throughout my teaching career has been Neil Postman’s Teaching as a Subversive Activity. His concepts of helping kids develop their instincts for evaluating and analyzing all the messages tossed at them during their lives (he called it their crap detector) are more valid today than when he wrote the book in the 70’s.” — Tim
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
“As a teenager I was mystified by the audacity of the grand inquisitor. I’d never read such a succint indictment of faith. As I got to my twenties I read the whole book, but in my late twenties I began to appreciate it. I’ve never read a more powerful and realistic testament to faith in my life, and as I’ve grown, my reading of the book has grown with me.” — Don
The Candles of Your Eyes – James Purdy
“If the devil were alive he would be writing the works of James Purdy. ‘The Candles of Your Eyes’ changed my outlook on literature forever.” — John
The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
–“This novel touched my heart deeply.” — Ellen
–“I’m going to go back to high school and say that Catcher in the Rye had a big impact on my life. While the content of the book in terms of character and story were accessible to me at 16, that isn’t really what made the difference. It was only after reading some criticism and talking with others in school and out that I began to see all that was going on in a novel beyond the plot: symbolism, irony, language and the rest. When I saw how much could go on in a book, how many things were going on simultaneously, I became very impressed with the complexity of literature as art. From then on I was pretty well hooked on books.” — Jack
The Chaneysville Incident - David Bradley
This book “arrived in my library, as part of our rental collection, in the mid-70s. Since then, I have given away at least half a dozen copies, bought it for other libraries I’ve worked at, and had a brief correspondence with David Bradley, the author. It’s about time for me to reread it…. If only one of you, reading this, gets the book, I’ll be satisfied. Even if you don’t get past the dissertation on long distance public transportation.” — Papermaven
“I read this book as a teenager. I remember being completely fascinated with the Jewish culture portrayed in the novel, but the main impact came in the way Potok emphasized the values of intelligence, intellectual achievement, and compassion for others. I was incredibly moved by the conflict between these values, and find myself re-reading this novel and the sequel “The Promise” almost yearly for over 20 years.” — Judy
The Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
“Short and punchy, his macabre tales pack a visual whollop that modern longer stories lack. He can create mood and tone in less than a page. When I need a break from student narratives, I read a short story by Poe. There is a reason the guy’s writing has survived.” — Chris
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
“I read The Grapes of Wrath in the 7th grade. That was 43 years ago. Steinbeck’s tender and loving prose and voice have never left me. I don’t think it’s too much to say that I actually, factually, love that book, and its author, very, very much.” — Fuzzo
The History of Sexuality & Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault
“Both of these books philosophically ushered me into the modern world, changing the way I saw power, sex, sexuality, school, and nothing less than the Modern Self.” — Dragon Management
The Journey to the East - Hermann Hesse
“For a young reader, this became a portal for enjoying books.” — Bob
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
“The book that most influenced my life was “The Lord of the Rings” that I read when I was 15 years old. That book introduced me to the world of fantasy books. Ever since I keep reading this genre of books (plus a lot others of course), both in English and in Italian.” — Francesco
The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
– “It’s chock full of free-thinking anarchism and did a lot to push me towards my current semi-libertarian view point.” — Dave
–“I would imagine this book had a similar effect on a lot of people who read it. This book really changed the way I think and introduced me to a lot of really great information. I went on to read almost all of Robert Anton Wilson’s books. He was a great philosopher who wasn’t afraid to state his mind. He recently passed away and I know a lot of people will and are missing him. His greatest effect on me was the introduction of `maybe logic.’” — Cyen
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard Feynman
“A collection of assorted writings by a great scientist shows the full palette of a sharp intelligence animated by all-around curiosity.” — Davide
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
“I have two books that impacted my life; one from childhood and one from early adulthood. In the sixth grade, our teacher read The Secret Garden to us every day. I was captivated by the imagination, compassion, and touch of fantasy that this book awakened in me.” — Jan
“I love it so much. This book is for me pure philosophy.” — Ellen
“A book that first opened up my eyes to the fact that there are many ways that one can examine things.” — Darcy
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values - Robert M. Pirsig
–“Although I am not too much into philosophy, this book really made me see a lot of things differently!” — Harish
–“After 18 years exploring philosophies I still return to Pirsig for clarity. Although I see many parallels now with more “respectable” philosophers, such as Hume, there is also a very human dimension to these books which manages always to move me. There is a sensation for many who read Pirsig of re-connecting with some long-forgotten wellspring of wisdom long lost to the reductionism of our daily existences.” — David
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[...] readers contributed to creating a list of books that left an indelible mark on their lives. You can review the original post here. But we figured why not add them to our “My Library” page on Google, a new product that [...]
[...] Life-Changing Books: Your Picks [...]
“Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn should be added to this list.
It’s a groundbreaking statement of and against humanity as a whole, about our past, our downfall, and how we must change this instant to change out future. It’s changed how I think about the nations, international interaction, and the human race as not the only nor the most important creatures on this planet.
“The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand should be added to your list too.
The introduction of Objectivism detailed in this work was truly inspiring. It shows the strength of a Dominique Francon, female lead character and the complex relationship she holds with Howard Roarke, the protagonist. The strife of Roark, from his struggles in an early life through the peak of his profession painted a world pitted against him - though he never compromised his vision.
In this work Rand designed characters we love to hate, and personalities in we which we all are familiar such as the sensationalist media, the opportunist, and the manipulators.
There are decisions we make as individuals contribute to the whole of our society. We can be empowered to make decisions to improve our lives. After reading this book, it was truly life-changing. The Fountainhead is truly the source for change, as it is where the source of information begins.
“manchild in the promise land” by Claude Brown
this guy grew up in harlem briefly met Eleanor Roosevelt at a reform school, he went on to finish Law school. No matter how low your station in life you can rise above it all
“Manchild in the promise land” by Claude Brown
this guy grew up in harlem briefly met Eleanor Roosevelt at a reform school, he went on to finish Law school. No matter how low your station in life you can rise above it.
I agree with Cat’s Cradle!
“The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck. It was the first book taught by Mrs. Billone my freshman year of high school in Deerfield, IL. I didn’t even like it very much. But it was the first time I realized that books offered much more than casual story — that the tricks of a skillful writer’s trade — language, symbolism, purposeful structure — could create a miraculous depth and richness.
My reaction wasn’t wonder. It was to be intensely ticked off. Here I’d been reading my whole life and no one had ever told me this! My fourteen-year-old self wanted to go back and re-read every book I’d ever touched — from “Hop On Pop” to “Caddie Woodlawn” — and find out what I’d been missing.
Where is the bible? :roll:
The little prince
i read this book a few days ago. I am 35 years old, but I think I could communicate with this book. the book described the differece between grown-ups and the children in a very simple and nice way. you can find the philosophy of life and a nice educational method in it.
Really surprised Enders Game and Fahrenheit 451 are not on here. The way enders game made me feel when i first read it in 7th grade I honestly can not tell you how excited i was through the entire book. I could not put it down at all. Ender being such a small boy impacted the entire human race and for some reason this story has stuck with me through the years. I could not describe in words to you how i felt reading this book. It touched me on so many levels heart,soul and mind. 451 was the same way. But no book will ever compare to Enders Game. Ever
Completely agree with Cat’s Cradle (also Sirens of Titan), Ishmael, and especially the Little Prince (the claymation movie is fantastic)!
Carl Sagan’s “The Demon Haunted World” really opened my eyes to how I look at and analyze the world. This and his other works show how important science is not as a subject but as a lifestyle.
I’d like to add Annie Dillard, “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” Dillard connect me with the whole natural process involving all sentient beings and the whole cosmos. She is deeply loving without ignoring the often brutal realities of the whole rhythm of life living off life.
She is also writing some of the most beautiful prose in the contemporary corpus.