What book had the most significant impact on your life?

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

The Let Them Theory is a step-by-step guide on how to stop letting other people's opinions, drama, and judgment impact your life. Two simple words, Let Them, will set you free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you.
 

I've been thinking about this. I don't think books have the same impact on you when you are older. You've seen too much, done too much to be influenced the same way.

Some other books that had a huge impact on me -- through my 20s -- were Anna Karenina, Oliver Twist, Far From the Madding Crowd, Sometimes a Great Notion, and on the non-fiction side, The Guns of August, The Education of Henry Adams, The Flowering of New England, and a Joseph Campbell book called Myths to Live By.
 
jim_slim said:
For me the Bible!

Some good reads are Frank Peretti books “Piercing the Darkness” and “This present Darkness”. They are about spiritual warfare.
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The Bible for me as well. Also, starting from childhood: Charlotte's Web, Little House books, The Outsiders, and Pilgrim's Progress.

Thanks for mentioning the Peretti books. I plan to check them out.
 
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Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck.
Return To Love, by Marianne Williamson
Food Is your Best Medicine, by Henry Bieler
A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
1984, by George Orwell
Most books by Joseph Campbell
Hope and Help For your Nerves, by Dr. Claire Weekes
 
JustDave said:
I held onto that book for years until it was tattered and dog eared. I don't know where it went. I wasn't recommending it, but at that time in my life, it got me started. I used some of the techniques along with counseling and therapy for a couple of years, and after gaining some growth skills, it seemed like I found other less structured ways to improve my life.

If you don't find it useful, it won't bother me. I'm not trying to sell it to anyone. We each find our own ways. But sometimes we need a little push.
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Dave, I got the book and have been digesting it little by little. Only wish I had found it sooner. I can't believe it was written in 1960 and it never crossed my path. It is never too late to learn.
 
BlueDragonfly said:
The Bible for me as well. Also, starting from childhood: Charlotte's Web, Little House books, The Outsiders, and Pilgrim's Progress.

Thanks for mentioning the Peretti books. I plan to check them out.
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Are you familiar with, Francine Rivers' stuff? Her, "Mark of the Lion," trilogy is very good. Also, The Last Sin Eater and Liota's Garden.
 
It may be trite, but Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead. They were really the first books that made me actually spend time thinking about the ideas that were espoused and her Objectivist philosophy. Not that I necessarily bought into it all, but I really spent time thinking about the ideas and realized that reading could have deeper dimensions than just storytelling.
 
Babs2u said:
Dave, I got the book and have been digesting it little by little. Only wish I had found it sooner. I can't believe it was written in 1960 and it never crossed my path. It is never too late to learn.
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I found that book in 1969, but about that time, the book shelves were loaded with self help literature. Maybe they always were and still are. And I read a lot of them. That one just happened to make a few points that I found vital at that particular time of my life. I don't know if that book was better than the others, or if at that time of my life, I had just gotten to a point where I desperately needed help. It was a time that I could describe my life as a low. Not low as in depressed, but low in sanity.

It was the beginning of putting a lot of things together and working hard at "becoming," a goal that is still very much a part of myself. Although, I'm a lot more relaxed about it now.
 
chic said:
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr. Great true story.
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There is another book about my home town, where a toxic contaminants were killing people I knew, and some who were friends. It's a different author, but the same company, W.R. Grace (as in your book), was being sued for the same thing. W.R. Grace got around most of the responsibility by claiming bankruptcy and the cost of the clean up fell to the Environmental Protection Agency. The book I read was An Air that Kills, but several other books have been written about it, but the story of the scandal and subsequent cover up broke in the Seattle times which spent weeks covering the story, while my home town news paper claimed to know nothing about it, at least before the Times uncovered it.

After A Civil Action, 20 years later, W.R. Grace was much more thorough about covering up the damage they do to make huge profits, but again the coverup was exposed. And again, Grace walked away with lots of money.
 
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JustDave said:
There is another book about my home town, where a toxic contaminants were killing people I knew, and some who were friends. It's a different author, but the same company, W.R. Grace (as in your book), was being sued for the same thing. W.R. Grace got around most of the responsibility by claiming bankruptcy and the cost of the clean up fell to the Environmental Protection Agency. The book I read was An Air that Kills, but several other books have been written about it, but the story of the scandal and subsequent cover up broke in the Seattle times which spent weeks covering the story, while my home town news paper claimed to know nothing about it, at least before the Times uncovered it.

After A Civil Action, 20 years later, W.R. Grace was much more thorough about covering up the damage they do to make huge profits, but again the coverup was exposed. And again, Grace walked away with lots of money.
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This story took place a couple of towns away from where I live and I knew one of the characters in the book because he was a neighbor. So horrible what happened to those kids.
 
Instead of Cars by Terence Bendixson (1977). Set me on the path to an interest in urbanism and sustainable transport many years ago. Also accurately foresaw the revitalisation of the tram. I still don't have a car, and, apart from about 5 years in my whole life, never have.
 
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