Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

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Valuethinker
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Valuethinker »

snyder66 wrote:I know there have been numerous books threads and I'm trying not to repeat them. But, I'm looking for boos that have had a real affect of your life. Something that actually caused you to change the way you live or do things in your life or investments. For me, It has been Michael Pollan's: In Defense of Food.
Victor Frankel 'Man's Search for Meaning'

Heinlein, Robert-- just about any of his 'juvenile' novels
Valuethinker
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Valuethinker »

Toons wrote:Victor Frankl - "Man's Search For Meaning"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning
+1
Valuethinker
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Valuethinker »

nisiprius wrote:It's not necessarily the books themselves; it's at least as much that I happened to encounter them at "teachable moments."

Stars, by Herbert S. Zim. Little Golden nature guide. I could just barely read. Couldn't quite figure out why there was also a planet that had the same name as Earth. My mother explained it to me. Amazing.

Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott.

The essay "On Being the Right Size," by J. B. S. Haldane.

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, by Andrew Tobias, and A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel.
I am not sure if 'Flatland' was ever life changing for me, but a wonderful wonderful book.

There's a novel by Kaye 'The Incredible Umbrella' that puts the characters in Flatland at one point.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/mar ... brella.htm

It's a glorious romp through Victorian fiction-- especially crime fiction.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by HearDoc »

nisiprius wrote:I

Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel.

+1 on Flatland
also "How to Lie with Statistics" by Huff probably the greatest influence in making me a skeptical consumer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics
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FabLab
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by FabLab »

The Whole Earth Catalog by Stewart Brand. For its day and time, I can't think of another publication where I newly encountered more ideas, authors, books, and tools (broadly defined) to be further pursued and considered.
The fundamental things apply as time goes by -- Herman Hupfeld
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SHL
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by SHL »

The Holy Bible, King James Version
Stephen
Lauren Vignec
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Lauren Vignec »

SGM wrote:The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by leo Tolstoi read at age 19. It is about a judge who is dying at age 45. He thought he lived the good life, but realized he had only lived for himself. His own death, he hoped, would free others around him.
That short story also affected me powerfully, and I think at an even younger age. Later on, The Dead by James Joyce profoundly changed me.

There is a single scene in Anna Karenina that I will never forget. It's the one where Anna's husband suspects she is cheating on him. He goes around and around mentally trying to deal with the issue, and he also paces around and around in his house. Every time he thinks the same thought, he ends up in the same point at his house.

The book that changed my life the most was Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov. I think this is the only book that has ever made a more ethical person. I remember in an interview Nabokov said that in the future, people would realize he was a phoenix of morality. He was.
thomasbayarea
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by thomasbayarea »

In no particular order --

Three Men in a Boat
The Catcher in the Rye
English, August
Bogleheads Guide to Investing
Random Walk Down Wall Street - B. Malkiel
High School English Grammar and Composition - Wren & Martin
Problems in General Physics - Irodov
Fluid Mechanics - P. Kundu
Guns, Germs, and Steel - J. Diamond
Barefootgirl
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Barefootgirl »

I too must count Joe Dominguez among those who greatly influenced my life and outlook.

I suspect a humbler man might never have lived who comprehended the extent of his impact on others.

RIP Joe.


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SunDevil
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by SunDevil »

Montaigne's "Essays". Que sais-je?
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by dewey »

Add another to Bertrand Russell's Why I am Not a Christian which I read 35 years ago. As with all significant books it has continuing relevance over time.

Also, Alice Miller's For Your Own Good, which unpacks the hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence. Nazi Germany was the focus of her work but it speaks to a vital set of issues plaguing our society as well.

The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer. He's researched and written widely on the subject for decades and made his latest--likely last--book available for free on line. It has an inventory anyone can take and score, which tells you your level of personal authoritarianism.
“The only freedom that is of enduring importance is freedom of intelligence…” John Dewey
Puakinekine
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Puakinekine »

Books were my life for a major part of it, so I have to say this one was the one.
http://www.amazon.com/We-Look-Penguin-Y ... 0448434008

I distinctly remember the teacher writing the word "LOOK" on the blackboard and that was it for me. I was in love. It also helped that it was the first thing that I did better (at least in that classroom) then any of my contemporaries, being the youngest in the family and neighborhood crowd and totally non-athletic Talk about empowerment!
lightheir
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by lightheir »

1001 Chess Tactics by Reinfeld.

I'm not one of those "chess is life" supporters (it clearly isn't), but I studied chess seriously at one point, and was amazed at the richness, depth, and objectivity of the analysis. It has a incredibly rich culture, heritage, and even a surprisingly transparent way to learn and get good at it if you are willing to invest the time and effort.

This particular book is nearly endless in its depth for all these things. By just presenting chess problems to solve, you get an immediate grasp of how deep and rich knowledge in a field can truly be. You could study this book for a lifetime, over and over again, and continuously become a stronger, wiser player. Despite the fact that it offers no direct knowledge to improve your practical nonchess life, the wisdom gained from studying this book for years is worth it to me. It's not the be all end all of chess, but it's perhaps the best stepping stone to becoming a good player, and getting your mind set for more.

If only academic textbooks could be written with this level of understanding and organization and clarity, the world would be a richer place.
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Tortoise Banker
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Tortoise Banker »

Think and Grow Rich-Napoleon Hill: Taught me to identify a "definite major purpose" and visit it daily as a reminder on where to stear the ship.

How to Win Friends and Influence People: Very good foundation for interacting with others.

The Bible: A source of strength daily.

The Intelligent Investor-Ben Graham: Not sure how, but this eventually led me to a 3-fund vanguard portfolio rebalanced annually into a predetermined asset allocation plan.

One Minute Manager-Kenneth Blanchard: As a young manager, this book has been a nice tool to refer back to from time to time.

Sacred Marriage-Gary Thomas: My fiancee and I are working through this slowly, and so far it has strengthened our relationship immensly.

Hope that helps someone out there.
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GregLee
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by GregLee »

lightheir wrote:I'm not one of those "chess is life" supporters (it clearly isn't), but I studied chess seriously at one point, and was amazed at the richness, depth, and objectivity of the analysis. It has a incredibly rich culture, heritage, and even a surprisingly transparent way to learn and get good at it if you are willing to invest the time and effort.
My suggestion is not on topic, since this book did not change my life, but I think you might like to read Edward Lasker's http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Secrets-Hav ... 0486222667. Aside from some games, it has many personal reminiscences of the great masters of the past: Emanuel Lasker (a distant cousin), Alekhine, Nimzowich, Capablanca, ...

Image
Savielly Tartakower and Edward Lasker
Greg, retired 8/10.
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market timer
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by market timer »

Oh, if we're talking about chess books, this one got me hooked: http://www.amazon.com/Most-Instructive- ... 486273024/

Lately, I've found this master's youtube channel incredibly addictive: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChessNetwork
lightheir
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by lightheir »

market timer wrote:Oh, if we're talking about chess books, this one got me hooked: http://www.amazon.com/Most-Instructive- ... 486273024/

Lately, I've found this master's youtube channel incredibly addictive: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChessNetwork
I've actually read that book. Well, not all of it, but I have analyzed in great depth many of the games there.

While it's definitely a masterful collection and very insightful, unfortunately it doesn't have an immediate impact on one's game unless you are like a near-master level player. Anyone under that level will fall victim to an unseen tactical device well before those positional concepts can be put into play. I'm sure I'd love this book if I were ELO 2000+, but unfortunately, in terms of actually improving my game, this book and most game collections, despite the excellent annotations, were low yield.

Now spend time with 1001 Tactics and do most of that book - unless you're 2000+ already, you're going to see an immediate, noticeable, and quantifiable improvement in your play. I sharpened mainly with this book for a year, and took down two very legitimate 2000 and 1900 rated players despite a low personal rating at the time of 1400 (likely because I didn't play enough games to get my ELO up.) Another illustration of how studying the right stuff and the right time is crucial for continued improvement, not just in chess, but in any field. Very eye opening - understanding that concept has allowed me to excel in all intellectual fields I've pursued. (I graduated from Harvard and now have an MD PhD, so it seems to have worked very well thus far.)
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by gkaplan »

Give Me One Wish by Jacquie Gordon. This is Jacquie's memoir of her daughter, Christine Nelson, who died at the age of twenty-one from cystic fibrosis. I first read this book when it came out over twenty years ago. I read it in about two nights. (It's only about three hundred pages.) Then I read it again. And again. And again. This went on for about six months. Finally, I stashed the book away in my library, and I told myself I had to get on with my life. And I did. Periodically, I'd cast my eyes on the book and wanted to pull it out and read it again, but I restrained myself. Until last summer. I needed to find something in the book for reference; however, when I skimmed through the book I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I decided to read it from the beginning. And then I read it again. And again. I just cannot put this book down.

This is the not the only book I'm reading now. I'm currently reading two other non-fiction books of varying lengths. The three books I read prior to that (while reading Jacquie's book) were each seven hundred pages.

http://www.amazon.com/Give-One-Wish-Jac ... 504&sr=1-1
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Van »

Letter To A Christian Nation

Silent Spring
Badinvestor
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Badinvestor »

sscritic wrote:My first Calculus text, which taught me that math was more than arithmetic.

I won't say how it changed my life, as that seems to be a minor point that many others are leaving out as well.
Me too on both counts. However, to satisfy Victoria's curiosity, I will reveal that my text was published shortly before the second well-known Principia Mathematica, the one by Russell and Whitehead. The text was entitled A Course of Pure Mathematics, written by G.H. Hardy. It is still in print, and still better for my taste than any other calculus text.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by tennisuws »

"The Road Less Traveled" - Scott Peck
"A Preface to Morals" - Walter Lippman
KS
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by anncatchingup »

The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. After I read that, I changed to a vegan diet. Other books by Neal Barnard, MD, John McDougall, MD, and Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, followed and confirmed my decision, but it was The China Study that changed my outlook on food forever.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by denismurf »

I've read about half of what Alan Watts wrote and love the way his books calm me down and make me laugh. Occasionally I have trouble following him, but I just tune those parts out. He calls himself a Zen Buddhist, and maybe he is. The funniest to me is some essays collected as the book Does It Matter?
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by wander »

mhc wrote:The Bible.
+1
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by tludwig23 »

For me it would be books that changed the way I viewed humanity as a whole. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. Those that I've read and reread include:

Night
Catch-22
1984
Slaughterhouse-Five
Death of a Salesman
The Plague
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af895
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by af895 »

I'm omitting books already on the Boglehead reading list but those have been game changers for me. (if you're Canadian, add "The Naked Investor")

Here are a few I would recommend highly.

"Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture" by Ellen Ruppel Shell.
"Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game" by Paul Midler.
"Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard" by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.
"Leading Change" by John P. Kotter.

"Cheap" and "Poorly Made in China" are right up a Boglehead's alley.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by gd »

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Found entirely by chance as a used paperback in the basement of one of the countless, wonderful, long-gone bookstores in Harvard Square. Science is tied to human foibles of dogma, fashion, politics and personality, like everything else including politics and economics/finance.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Quality as a philosophy of life. Those beer can shims scarred me for life. I have never figured out if the ancient philosophy discussion was for real, or an ingenious literary device like the mother figure in The Da Vinci Code.

Walden. First read as a clueless teenager wannabe hippie, it took about 20 years of occasionally browsing it to click. "I have travelled widely in Concord".

Your Money or Your Life. Several curious things about this book- first, it doesn't seem to affect anyone any more. Maybe the market is saturated, or no one can get beyond the dated details, and I've heard the revision is flaky. Second, it seems to me his financial/lifestyle strategy would have been surprisingly successful if you'd adopted it wholeheartedly 20 years ago. Starting today would be a little more problematic, but I'd love to see what Dominguez would have come up with. Third, there was lots more philosophy of life in this book than often appreciated (or accepted) by people looking for get-out-of-debt panacea (most of his casual fans)-- for example, planning against massive health care expenses by staying healthy, becoming integrated into your community for support in crises, and accepting fatal illnesses without huge interventions that accomplish little except brief extensions with terrible quality of life.
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CMartel2
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by CMartel2 »

The Bible - any version, a constant source of strength and humility.

1984 by George Orwell

Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith, which really instilled in me an early love for reading.

Some random macroeconomics book, which changed my outlook on politics and life in general.

God in Searc of Man, by Abraham Joshua Heschel - a beautiful read by a Jewish theologian

The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century, which has forever deepened my love for medieval architecture.
protagonist
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by protagonist »

Age 15- The Alexandria Quartet (made me question absolute truth), and a bunch of pithy rock lyrics (esp. Bob Dylan- helped me survive the teen years).
Age 20- Anything that had to do with theoretical physics and cosmology. Internalize that stuff and your entire weltanschaung gets thrown for a loop.
Age 40- Chaos (James Gleick), and The Book of Predictions (Irving Wallace), the combination of which made it clear how murky it is to pretend that one can plan for/predict the intermediate to long-range future, and thus changed my attitude towards my career and life in general.

Other than that, most of what I have read, fiction or non-fiction (educational), superficial or profound, classic or pulp, pretty much boils down to entertainment, on the same level as television.
mikefixac
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by mikefixac »

What great books the posters pick.

Sometimes I get so excited about a book, I need to just go run. Orwell's 1984 book kept me in bed for 3 days missing my college classes.

A book I read a few years ago "The Big Short". About the credit default swaps, but for me, the brilliance of the main character in the book. A true story.
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parsi1
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by parsi1 »

"Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff"
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by bertilak »

This may sound facetious but perhaps the "books" with the biggest influence on me were comic books!

When I was very young I was having great difficulty with reading and therefore hated it -- until I found comic books. These were primarily the Walt Disney Duck comics: Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Comics and Stories, with a smattering of Tarzan and The Phantom. They were all very creative, and fun, adventure stories. Those Duck comics are still in print, 60 years later.

Without Carl Barks (author and artist of all the Duck comics) I almost certainly would not have turned out to be the person I am today. I have more books than I have places to put them.

Interesting point: When these comics were first published, artists/authors were not credited. They were anonymous. Comics were not always drawn by the same person from issue to issue. Story authors and artists were sometimes different people. I think it was a number of years before people started to realize that the Duck comics were all drawn and authored by the same person and he was simply referred to as the "Duck Artist." Of course Barks eventually emerged from his anonymity.
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Taylor Larimore
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Taylor Larimore »

These books changed my life for the better:

Tarzan series: Developed my interest in reading at a young age.

How to Win Friends and Influence People: A great help for getting along with people.

Fountainhead: Helped me become more "inner directed" vs. "outer directed."

Random Walk Down Wall Street: Convinced me that I was unlikely to "beat the market."

Bogle on Mutual Funds: Put us on the path to investment success. Thank you, Jack!

Best wishes
Taylor
"Simplicity is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle
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Peter Foley
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Peter Foley »

Three books have been highly influential in my life - although they impacted different facets:
The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need - Tobias Investing
1984 - Orwell government and technology
Lazarillo de Tormes - Anonymous (The first Spanish picaresque novel) social issues and class struggles
TylerS
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by TylerS »

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (got me started into science...now I can't seem to pick up a novel because things like astronomy, evolutionary biology, psychology, etc. seem that much more interesting)

Why I Became An Atheist by John Loftus

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf
Tigermoose
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Tigermoose »

The Bible - Reading the Bible led me to a rebirth of my Christian self. Years of corruption and "dirt" were washed away and I became a servant of the Lord. It is exciting to read letters and stories from thousands of years ago that explain feelings and spiritual experiences I myself have experienced.

Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism -- I encountered a lot of literary theory and philosophy in graduate school. I was able to see the severe limitations and contradictions in modern and postmodern ideologies. I now understand that one's views and opinions are founded upon bedrock assumptions and choices of the will. We are all products of our society and its ideologies, no matter how free-thinking we like to imagine ourselves to be. We ultimately serve some ideological master. I can generally understand and sympathize with people of all political and ideological persuasions.

Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality -- Reality is a dynamic becoming of the possible into the actual and then into the possible. The worlds of spirit, material, society, and the forms bring our reality into existence.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Andyrunner »

Besides a lot of the finance books:

The Greatest Generation. Always refer back to it and realize how good and well off I am.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by HomerJ »

Taylor Larimore wrote:Tarzan series: Developed my interest in reading at a young age.
Me too! My Dad owned like 20 of them when he was a kid... When I found them, I read all of them straight through, and then made him go out and buy me the other 30+ in the series... After that, I was quite the reader (Re-read a couple about 3-4 years ago... I didn't realize how racist those Tarzan books are - I didn't notice when I read them as a kid)

I got into Richard Bach when I was 19.... Jonathan Livingston SeaGull, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, and The Bridge Across Forever.

Those had a huge impact on me because I read them at 19... Not sure they would be so powerful if I read them today... but maybe.

A more recent book that really opened my eyes was Misquoting Jesus, written by a biblical scholar that shows the steps used to determine what parts of the New Testament are authentic and which are not since many of our oldest copies of the Bible are different from each other. (For instance, one of the stories about Jesus in the New Testament does not appear in any surviving Bible we have before the 10th century - purely fiction added in the 10th century? Or did it have a source that has since disappeared?). Very interesting book.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Fallible »

bertilak wrote:This may sound facetious but perhaps the "books" with the biggest influence on me were comic books!

When I was very young I was having great difficulty with reading and therefore hated it -- until I found comic books. These were primarily the Walt Disney Duck comics: Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Comics and Stories, with a smattering of Tarzan and The Phantom. They were all very creative, and fun, adventure stories. Those Duck comics are still in print, 60 years later.

Without Carl Barks (author and artist of all the Duck comics) I almost certainly would not have turned out to be the person I am today. I have more books than I have places to put them.
...
Thanks for sharing your experience. It's not at all facetious if comics helped you that much and it's not surprising considering their visual and imaginative appeal. Comic books I read as a kid awakened many of my interests in money and the classics. I remember staring for a long time at Scrooge McDuck's stacks and stacks of gold coins in his counting house and wanting stacks like that. It may have been my first experience with greed, or frugality if you look at the stacks as savings. Probably both. Also loved Classic Comics and was deeply affected by Cyrano de Bergerac, which I read again and again, feeling more sorry each time for Cyrano. When I showed the comic to a friend, she laughed at his nose and I got mad at her. Eventually, the classic comics led to my reading the book classics probably at an earlier age than most and those certainly changed my life forever.
"Yes, investing is simple. But it is not easy, for it requires discipline, patience, steadfastness, and that most uncommon of all gifts, common sense." ~Jack Bogle
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evenkeel
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by evenkeel »

I vividly remember first reading Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when I was around 10. As a typical suburban middle-class child, the portrait of Charlie's family life was astonishing to me. His father worked for pennies at a factory screwing the caps on toothpaste, his mother had a backbreaking job taking in laundry, and Charlie received 1 chocolate bar a year as a birthday present. I still remember crying when I read that the family ate only cabbage soup for dinner and Charlie's mother feigned fullness so that Charlie could have her portion. It was the first time I realized that people lived in different circumstances and children my age could be hungry, or cold, or scared.
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bertilak
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by bertilak »

Fallible wrote:Eventually, the classic comics led to my reading the book classics probably at an earlier age than most and those certainly changed my life forever.
My progression was more low-brow than that. From comic books I went to The Hardy Boys. (Same authoress, different pen name, as Nancy Drew. I wonder how many of the plots were recycled.)

But today many of my favorites are also classics, even though the interest awakened much later:
  • Coleridge (Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel)
    Thomas Mallory (le Morte D'Artur)
    The Pearl poet (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- thus my name here, Bertilak)
    Chaucer (Canterbury Tales)
    T. E. Lawrence (prose translation of the Odyssey. Just starting Seven Pillars of Wisdom)
Those are some I re-read many times.
May neither drought nor rain nor blizzard disturb the joy juice in your gizzard. -- Squire Omar Barker (aka S.O.B.), the Cowboy Poet
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by BillyG »

The most important:
The Psychology of Winning, by Denis Waitley (cassette tapes; totally changed my life)

Also important:
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill

Billy
Tamahome
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Tamahome »

In order that I read them in life:

How to Win Friends and Influence People (age 14, again at 17)

Brave New World and 1984 (18)

The Fountainhead (19)

A work by Soren Kierkegaard in combination with some writings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. (21)

Assorted networking books, as well as How to Start and Build a Law Practice (23-26)

The Bible (30 to present) (It has a lot of good life lesson info in it, as do most texts of this nature.)

Assorted books on finance including those by Bogle, Swedroe, Ferri. The Millionaire Next Door is what started the changes for me. (33-present)
I'm not a financial professional. Post is info only & not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship exists with reader. Scrutinize my ideas as if you spoke with a guy at a bar. I may be wrong.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by Savvy »

CptnNdx wrote:Think and Grow Rich-Napoleon Hill: Taught me to identify a "definite major purpose" and visit it daily as a reminder on where to stear the ship.

How to Win Friends and Influence People: Very good foundation for interacting with others.

The Bible: A source of strength daily.

The Intelligent Investor-Ben Graham: Not sure how, but this eventually led me to a 3-fund vanguard portfolio rebalanced annually into a predetermined asset allocation plan.

One Minute Manager-Kenneth Blanchard: As a young manager, this book has been a nice tool to refer back to from time to time.

Sacred Marriage-Gary Thomas: My fiancee and I are working through this slowly, and so far it has strengthened our relationship immensly.

Hope that helps someone out there.
As my wife and I just got married a year ago...The book "What Did You Expect??" has been hugely helpful.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by reggiesimpson »

"The Illusion of Immortality" by Corliss Lamont. The brilliant authors attempt to prove there is a God and a hereafter only to end up explaining why there is neither.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by rayout »

Financially I'd say Dr. Bernstein's books have had the greatest impact - The Investor's Manifesto epescially.

Healthwise it would have to be "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and "The Primal Solution" by Mark Sisson that have helped me on my physical transformation.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by sschullo »

Toons wrote:Victor Frankl - "Man's Search For Meaning"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning
Yes!
Also Richest Man in Babylon and The Boxcar Children.
Never in the history of market day-traders’ has the obsession with so much massive, sophisticated, & powerful statistical machinery used by the brightest people on earth with such useless results.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by xGLORYx »

Outside of Bogle Books

1) The Bible

2) Raising a Modern-Day Knight ~ Father/Parenting book. If you are a father, this book is an easy read and absolutely outstanding.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by bungalow10 »

sschullo wrote:
Yes!
Also Richest Man in Babylon and The Boxcar Children.
I've been reading The Boxcar Children series to my five year old at night. He loves it, but I have to say that after the first few books the stories get a little old. He is still enthralled with them, but I'm getting burnt out.
An elephant for a dime is only a good deal if you need an elephant and have a dime.
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Re: Books that have actually changed your life, in a way.

Post by bungalow10 »

Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth and Spiritual Midwifery.

I read a lot, generally a book or two a week, but those two books really shaped how I viewed my body, child birth, parenthood, and ultimately my own health care.
An elephant for a dime is only a good deal if you need an elephant and have a dime.
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