Are there any books that you would say split your life into two parts – before you read the book, and after. Books that deeply shifted your perspective on your life in some way. How did these books change you?
If I was to choose one, it would have to be Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. When I see the cover art I feel an odd sense of nostalgia. The prose feel very delicate and thoughtful, which ultimately lends itself to how heartbreaking the story is. In time I think I will read it again, as I'm sure my perspective towards things will change with age.
I appreciate the natural tangents that the book goes on. Items in the environment will sometimes have a story connected to them, which helps to more deeply understand the characters as you watch them grow into adults. It adds depth to the little things that a person may not think twice about. I sometimes catch myself thinking about little things in my own life in the same way. I developed a greater appreciation for the journey that not only I go on, but the everyday items in my life also go on, and the memories they carry.
I feel as though the book has helped me to be more prepared for the emotions that life has to offer. I've always struggled with understanding and embracing my emotions. Childlike innocence and curiosity, teenage angst, love, hope, rage, grief, patience, forgiveness, and so much more is touched upon subtly, but tenderly, through the characters and their flaws. It displays drama with a very human and grounded lense. It is a very accurate depiction of what it means to feel.
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‘She’s Come Undone’ by Wally Lamb changed my life because it allowed me to see the world from a perspective I had not before. Being young and male, and only reading stuff like Stephen King up to that point didn’t really allow for seeing things from a female perspective. The book also allowed me to understand that I wasn’t the only one who thought some of the thoughts/had some of the same ideas as Dolores. I read SCU in about 1993 at 22 years old and still reread it about once a year.
I wouldn’t call it “life changing” but Guy de Maupassant’s Bel-Ami (Dear Friend) reassured me once more that karma mostly never catches up with horrible people.
“One hundred years of solitude”, by García Marquez. Give it a try
It was not a book, but a short story Monkey’s Paw by W.W Jacobs, where it basically reflects on how we should be careful about what we wish. It taught me how everything i wish to happen has an invisible (tangible and intangible ) cost tied to it.
Crime and punishment by Dostoevsky. After reading the book, I started accepting my faults and able to view the world in a different point of view.
Probably Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson.
Read it when I was young and in the process of understanding myself and my sexuality. It was one of those books that hit at the right time.. hard to express all that it was/is to me, but I can look back and clearly see there was a before and after. It also opened up a whole new world of reading. Previously I’d read mostly relatively light type fiction plus literary novels for school, but this was probably the first literary work I read independently and that I ‘found for myself’ and through it I developed my own taste in books.
Most definitely Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It is definitely one of the great modern epics. The characters are mysterious, compelling, kind, and cruel, sometimes all at the same time. The book is a philosophical masterwork as well, and has given me some philosophies to mull over that I still subscribe to today. It’s truly a beautiful and heart wrenching story that explores paternal, fraternal, and romantic love is surprising ways, and paints culture and life in India in a wonderful light (not that it doesn’t deserve it!) Super interesting take on organized crime as well.
Antoine de St Exupery, ‘Wind, Sand, and Stars’. Life is fleeting.
The Count of Monte Cristo, I read it when I was 15 and it definitely gave me the hope and strength to forgive the people who hurt me.
Life changing magic of tidying up.
I may have some clutter still and am no strict minimalist but I’m so quick to donate items and get rid of things I don’t want now. Really frees up mental and physical space to tidy/de-clutter.
Yes, it was the book A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson which I read in 1993.
Cosmos by Carl Sagan – Learning how everything is connected on an atomic level was astonishing and actually changed some of my views on spirituality and life. The interconnectedness of the universe on both a vast and tiny scale is amazing and our scientific discoveries since the book was written are even more mind boggling.
I feel so pretentious saying this but reading Proust changed the way I view and evaluate literature as a medium. The prose is so good and emotional and evokes such an ethereal around you as you are reading it that all the other books I had read before that cannot even remotely compare and my reading since then has certainly become for “high-brow” in terms of selection and assessment of the writing.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. The deep philosophical undercurrent to this book turned something in me *on* when I read it for the first time as a teen. It was really pivotal in shaping the way I viewed love and literature. Love as a philosophy. Literature as something that could evolve and challenge you. I don’t even own a copy anymore because I’m always lending it out to people and never getting it back.
The Book Of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. It’s a profound meditation on religion, mortality, and climate change all wrapped up in a science fiction story.
Sophie’s world. Existential crises for days
Probably “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. I think I was in a fairly bleak place when I first read it, and I certainly felt more at peace after finishing it a few times. I can’t honestly recall more than a very general plot outline, but I remember it having some beautiful passages.
I find it a bit difficult to describe why I found it so moving, but as Siddhartha says:
“One can find wisdom, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it”. 😉
There’s two:
Night by Elie Wiesel. That book shook me. I felt every word like I was there with him and it just broke me.
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s just such a beautiful book and I know people have feelings about Rothfuss but I maintain, that the prose may be the most beautiful I’ve been read. The scene where Kvothe is playing for his pipes always gives me chills.
Notes from the underground – Dostoevsky
It made my realize that there is a irrational part to everyone and if you think not you are going to end up miserable like the underground man
I’ve been enjoying life for the first time in awhile since reading it
Norwegian Wood, mostly because it made me love reading again after such a long time of not reading
Never Let Me Go is on my reading list and I’ve heard so many good things about it I’m very excited to read it.
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. Before I found this magical, otherworldly masterpiece, I’d never experienced such a brilliant combination of wild imagination and emotional depth (not to mention beautiful prose). It set a new—and very high—benchmark for creativity in my own writing, which I am forever striving to reach.
Honorable mention to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Coincidentally, I was reading this concurrently with Cosmicomics, and the genius of these two works hitting me at the same time completely overhauled my notion of what’s possible in fiction.
Night by Elie Weisel.
Catch-22 had an outsized impact on me.
Couldn’t say why for sure.
The Brothers Karamazov and House of Leaves.
The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
Had a sense of humor that I had never encountered before, and rarely encountered since. Just a wonderful read. RIP Douglas Adams you were taken from us way too soon.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I read it in my tween years while having a hard childhood. It was really validating at the time to read a book about a girl who had really awful parents, but who gets through it all, and even is able to feel some gratitude for her upbringing, even if it was difficult and unfair. I have a distinctive memory of reading the end while on the beach and sobbing (which is kinda awkward but hey, it really spoke to me)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I was working a rough job and having serious insomnia at that point in my life. I was sent on a last minute trip across the country to sit in a two-hour meeting, and due to flight delays where the plane sat on the ground I ended up stuck on airplanes for 14-16 hours total. I had picked up 100YoS before I left and ended up reading it continually, couldn’t sleep in the crappy hotel that night and kept reading all night long, went to the meeting the next morning a total zombie and knocked it out of the park, cabbed back to the airport and continued reading through the flight, got home and couldn’t sleep and kept reading. I finished the book sometime around 3am after what was practically 35-40 hours of nonstop reading and then fell asleep and slept for 24 hours.
It’s one of the best books ever written. I don’t necessary recommend consuming it in a manic binge over two days, though. It broke me through to the other side of a troubling period, cured my insomnia, and was the herald for me as I left my job to start down another career path.
Never Let Me Go broke me in the way The World According to Garp broke me. The Winter of Our Discontent broke me, but so did We Were Liars. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest knocked me down, then Yossarian laughed at me in Catch-22 and broke me again.
I hope books create befores and afters and break up moments in life. This is what they are meant to do: to disturb.
In that way, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday brought immense joy. Vanity Fair cracked me up all the way through. East of Eden made me rethink things. The Cobra Event worried me. Duma Key changed herons for me, and I live in Florida. Thinking about The Pedersen Kid has fucked me up for some reason too this week, so I think I’ll reread that for the millionth time. That story led me to The Weaver’s Grave, and wow, that was an interesting tale. Read Lolita to know that people are oily and smooth and terrible. Read The Road to know sometimes parents do love their kids a lot. Read The Princess Bride because every line is as gold as the author is. Read anything Gaiman writes because that dude is pure joy. Just read.
You know–what Hamlet said: Words, words, words.
Kite Runner ❤️ devastating and life changing