Have any books changed your way of thinking?

When I was a child I went to Church around 3 - 4 times on a Sunday, plus Sunday School and choir practice. I was a true believer. Even when I grew up and moved away from the family and its influences I still believed, in fact when I was around 16-18 I even attended some American type of revivalist meetings. Then, in my late twenties I read a book called Judas My Brother, which tipped all my beliefs on their head. I will not say that I became an instant atheist, but this book surely set me on that path. But despite that, I can recommend it as a thoroughly good read.

Re: Have any books changed your way of thinking?

Thats funny as its the oppersite for me ... I had religious parents but never believed my self as a child and grew up a complete non believer.
Then after a few things that happened to me in my life I was looking for some thing ..not really sure what ... A friend lent me a book The Celestine Prophecy. and it was the closest to religion that I came to in my whole life .. after a few years I came back to my sences and have my confidence back and dont need a crutch in my life so dont need to look for some thing any more .... but a powerful book at the time .. but I have since reread and now it just seems silly....

Re: Have any books changed your way of thinking?

I'm re-reading Walden and am being drawn in. Re-thinking life, materialism, consumerism, wants and needs...

Re: Have any books changed your way of thinking?

Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits
by Robert Townsend..The best book on business ever written.

"We need to be really bothered about something once in a while.
How long is it since you were really bothered about something important , something that's real?"





Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life by Henri J. M. Nouwen

" You may depend on it, the poor man who walks away with the greatest number of letters & proud of his extensive correspondence has not heard from himself in a long time"

Re: Have any books changed your way of thinking?

I guess for me, one of the most important books I read as a teenager was "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. I was already halfway to a cynical worldview, but this book kicked me all the way there. At the time, the idea that a business corporation could bid for contracts to bomb troops of their own nation was so outrageous as to be pretty much unbelievable. Nowadays it wouldn't surprise anyone. Even though the book was written about World War Two, its basic idea - war as a series of business opportunities - was a perfect fit for the Vietnam War. Not only that, but the inhuman absurdity of the constant quest for profit at all costs, makes the book frighteningly prescient.
The book had a profound effect on me. my political outlook and my life.