What is a book that has permanently changed your outlook on life?

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What is a book that has permanently changed your outlook on life?

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  1. Frost-Folk Avatar

    Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

  2. welding_guy_fromLI Avatar

    The power of now by Eckhart tolle

  3. SATURN5ROKCET Avatar

    All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

  4. MohamedSaleh91 Avatar

    Nietzsche – God is Dead

  5. nova_8 Avatar

    “Journey of Souls” and “Destiny of Souls” by Michael Newton.

  6. gator-mine23 Avatar

    The Stranger. I can feel sun sweltering at my indifference.

  7. Just_a_Ginger_Fella Avatar

    Unfuck Yourself by Gary John Bishop. Truly made me look at things in a whole different light.

  8. Ok_Conversation_240 Avatar

    Man’s search for meaning – Viktor Frankl

  9. This2shallChange Avatar

    A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield

  10. Kitchen_Bicycle4339 Avatar

    Man’s Search for Meaning, hit different when life got hard.

  11. RegisterLoose9918 Avatar

    Surrounded by idiots. I see all sort of personality colors now

  12. sweetterrorist Avatar

    Flowers for Algernon

  13. Crafty-Sale-3837 Avatar

    It’s out of print so it’s hard to find a copy.but I still cite this book quite often,
    it’s not something the CIA wants you to read, that’s for damn sure

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/789727.How_Real_Is_Real_Confusion_Disinformation_Communication

  14. Nucking-Futs-Nix Avatar

    Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning.

    I was in an incredibly deep depression and the book really helped me during that time.

  15. huguetteclark89 Avatar

    Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C Gibson

  16. Belise_the_Bat Avatar

    UnWind. We’re closer to that dystopia more than people think.

  17. Revolutionary-Cod444 Avatar

    You can heal your life – Louise L Hay

  18. StellaJump Avatar

    The Four Agreements

  19. TieFearless9007 Avatar

    Beatrix Potter’s stories, Where the Wild things are, Gruffalo, My Naughty Little Sister, Narnia series, Httyd, Warrior Cats, History Dark Materials and the Alex Rider series, have all made me happier and enjoy life more after having read them all. 

  20. Firm_Exercise3999 Avatar

    Tuesdays With Morrie – Mitch Albom

  21. CommunistAtheist Avatar

    The Communist Manifesto.

  22. New-Ice5114 Avatar

    Free To Choose by Milton Friedman

  23. Back2thehold Avatar

    How to win friends and influence people.

  24. Besty4 Avatar

    Ishmael – Daniel Quinn

  25. lindsayadult Avatar

    I’m SHOCKED that no one has mentioned Discworld or any Terry Pratchett books… everything in the Discworld series has taught me so much on how to be a decent human, how to treat others, and to “do the job in front of you.” I especially love the Tiffany Aching books because they’re about finding strength in yourself and who you are and again, simply being a great human while still being human.

  26. last12letUdown Avatar

    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I really value being able to feed my family and have a safe, clean home and a safe, clean environment at work.

    If you ever feel burnt out or frustrated by your job read this book. It used to be so bad.

  27. CompleteAd4579 Avatar

    To Kill a Mockingbird

  28. drulaps Avatar

    The Gift of Fear. I’ve bought at least 20 copies for people. I guarantee it has saved my life.

  29. reillan Avatar

    The Bible.

    After having grown up fundamentalist, I read the thing several times through and realized that what I was reading didn’t match what the church was teaching.

  30. cofeeholik75 Avatar

    Incarnations of Immortality

    is an eight-book fantasy series by Piers Anthony. The books each focus on one of eight supernatural “offices” (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good, and Night) in a fictional reality and history parallel to ours, with the exception that society has advanced both magic and modern technology.

  31. jnoss_m_n Avatar

    The Grapes of Wrath.

  32. Nuka_Cola34 Avatar

    1984, unfortunately

  33. United_Cattle_2229 Avatar

    A brief history of time

  34. JshWright Avatar

    Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler

  35. DeathPetal13 Avatar

    Know my name- Chanel Miller

  36. Ard_Ri Avatar

    The Adam and Eve story by Chan Thomas, declassified by the CIA in 2013.

  37. for-reverie Avatar

    The four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

  38. Away-Ad-4444 Avatar

    The count of Monte Cristo.. it taught me about obsession and the cost of revenge.. about the persuit of happiness and dangers it can have .. the duality if man.. good men can be bad, and bad man can be good. Right and wrong can be situational. Also, it’s a great story of loss and redemption.

  39. meatsmoothie82 Avatar

    The book of joy. Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama sitting and talking about finding joy and meaning through adversity. 

  40. Correct_Inside1658 Avatar

    Surprised not to see Alan Watts mentioned yet. ‘The Book’ and ‘The Way of Zen’ are classics

  41. dirkdigsher Avatar

    A People’s History of the United States… It’s a beast but was worth it.

  42. LeagueAggravating595 Avatar

    Millionaire Next Door

  43. iseadeadpeepole Avatar

    Letters from Riftka and the Uglies series. One is based on a true story the other one is “fantasy” that’s ironically real.

  44. strictlyPr1mal Avatar

    Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad Gita, Emerson Essays, Aurelius’s Meditations

  45. Top7DASLAMA Avatar

    A brief history of time, kinda robbed me of any meaning and ambition.

  46. OnePieceTwoPiece Avatar

    Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink

    People need to learn how to be introspective and learn how to take responsibility for themselves. It makes life so much easier when you know how. When you make a mistake at work, you own it, correct it, and move on. You’ll already have the solution and you build trust with everyone around you more easily.

  47. Microplasticdigester Avatar

    The alchemist my Paulo coehlo, if you’re about to start adult like definitely read it

  48. Decima_ZA Avatar

    Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to win friends and influence people’

  49. hoopla_ooze Avatar

    Animal Farm. The last lines still haunt me, and it’s been 20+ years since I first read it.

  50. BDCH10 Avatar

    When I first read Phenomenology of Perception by Merleau-Ponty, it completely shattered the way I understood reality. Before that, I thought consciousness was this detached observer, like a camera recording the world. But Merleau-Ponty showed me that perception is not passive, it’s embodied, situated, intentional. I am not in front of the world I am in the world, through my body. That changed everything. It made me realize that truth isn’t something we extract like data; it’s something we live. This shifted how I think about design, ethics, even capitalism because all of it begins with the body as the first site of meaning.

  51. maisymoonx Avatar

    Don’t make fun of me- Looking For Alaska. I read it when I was 13, then again and again over the years.

  52. lockedlipsx Avatar

    Why does he do that? By Lundy Bancroft.

    Life. Changing.
    Gifted to me by my therapist.

  53. jameslawrance Avatar

    The Intelligent Investor – Ben Graham

  54. ConsistentCover2527 Avatar

    Count of Monte Cristo

  55. snapper1971 Avatar

    The Bible. It’s an epic fairytale and it changed me to a firm atheist because it is nonsensical. I’ve never looked at the religious in the same way. You have to be really easy to hoodwink to believe it’s anything other than a work of fiction.

  56. EsotericRexx Avatar

    Zen a the Art of Motorcycle Maitenence! Deep Conceptualization and Symbolism. Specifically, every single part (big or small) has a function when assembled correctly.

  57. tonetheman Avatar

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_(Bach_novel)

    Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah – hopefully I spelled that correctly. Amazing book. Great message.

  58. Jessie-Joy Avatar

    CODEPENDENT NO MORE & the 5 languages of love

  59. Beloveddust Avatar

    I have a few answers to this, but the first one to mind is actually the book I’m reading right now. Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. It’s about the relationships between fungi and other life, and does an excellent job of troubling the boundaries we draw in the natural world and offering examples of beneficial symbiosis that are great inspiration for the ways we view and interact with the natural world and one another.

  60. hrrymcdngh Avatar

    Basic answer but Gatsby. You can’t repeat or even rewrite your past and trying to might end up killing you.

  61. davan6475 Avatar

    Siddartha by Herman Hesse.

  62. bigfathairybollocks Avatar

    CHAOS – James Gleick

  63. Defiant-Fault-2472 Avatar

    steppenwolf – Herman Hesse

  64. yogalil33 Avatar

    The untethered soul by Michael Singer. I re-read it everytime I’m feeling down, overwhelmed or lost.

  65. Key_Health_83 Avatar

    1984, ridiculous hiw apt it is and kinda always has been. Scarey man

  66. maxfly95 Avatar

    A people’s history of the United States by Howard Zinn

  67. Fun_Mistake4299 Avatar
  68. gypsyology Avatar

    Alan Watts…. The Book: On the taboo against knowing the self. 

    Profound book where Alan breaks down how society ruins our sense and concept of the Self… Life in general. 

  69. ishapeski Avatar

    Death of Ivan Ilich

  70. Mission_Goose_6702 Avatar

    I’m glad my mom is dead by Jeanette Mccurdy

  71. TheDancinD918 Avatar

    Run Baby Run.
    I was a bit of a troublemaker in my youth. Aside from the heavy religious theme, it did open my eyes and convinced me I needed to change my ways. Gang life isn’t for me.

  72. Stevo4896 Avatar

    It’s a little on the nose, but the subtle art of not giving a fuck is a pretty decent read.

  73. elfea Avatar

    The Women Who Run with the Wolves

  74. liberal_texan Avatar

    The Bible. After reading it cover to cover it changed my life, as it convinced me the stuff I’d been taught all my life being raised in the church was bullshit.

  75. CeeUNTy Avatar

    The Handmaid’s Tale. I read it in 1985 when my teacher assigned it.

  76. Bross93 Avatar

    Autobiography of a recovering Skinhead. Really really powerful book. The man, Frank Meink holds no punches when addressing his myriad mistakes and cruelty. Its a showcase that people can change, even if they often don’t.

  77. crosspatchwork Avatar

    When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

  78. KPinCVG Avatar

    Jonathan Livingston Seagull

    I still good cry every time I read it.

    Goodreads

  79. gypsytron Avatar

    The Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell’s version. 

  80. Mrwokn Avatar

    The Bible. I’m atheist now.

  81. bocks_of_rox Avatar

    The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin

  82. UltimaGabe Avatar

    Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World. I coincidentally was gifted a copy right around the time I had started deconstructing from Christianity and it put into words so many of my rising concerns about rational thinking and the ways people are so easily convinced to believe things without good reason.

  83. QHAM6T46 Avatar

    1984, The Handmaid’s Tale and To Kill a Mockingbird.

  84. Fun_Grass_2097 Avatar

    I believe Maugham’s Of Human Bondage has contributed to my overall pessimistic and nihilistic outlook towards life having read it when I was 14.

  85. westslexander Avatar

    Prozac nation. As someone who was suffering from depression at the time but unsure what it was or how to describe it or how to handle it, the book was literally a life saver for me.

  86. MrWiggleBritches Avatar

    The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo

  87. OHFUCKMESHITNO Avatar

    One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich

  88. CaptainFartHole Avatar

    Mick Harte Was Here

    I first read it a few months before my grandfather died when I was 12. It completely changed my understanding of human grief and mourning. One of my good friends had been killed a year earlier and I remember feeling so strange because I wasn’t grieving like everyone else seemed to. Reading that book helped me understand how grief is processed by different people. Even now when a loved one dies Ill still re-read it and recommend it to other people.

  89. AussieRunning Avatar

    Stephen King’s Pet Semetary. It was the book that really got me into reading when I was 9. It showed me the dangers of letting grief consume you. That letting go of those we’ve lost is an important step toward healing. The best way to honour them is to continue to live. To remember them.

  90. mononoke_smile Avatar

    The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

  91. psychologymaster222 Avatar

    Animal Farm by George Orwell

  92. Organic_Studio2471 Avatar

    The body keeps the score

  93. thegeeksshallinherit Avatar

    Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. I don’t have OCD, but related way too much to the main character’s mental health struggles. It prompted me to get professional help.

  94. Anxious-Answer5367 Avatar

    Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse

    My conservative father nearly had a fit when my Grade 12 teacher gave us that to read, and dear father was right. It did turn me into a peace seeking, buddhist hippy. 🙂

  95. HailTheDice Avatar

    Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, meditations on first philosophy by Descartes

  96. force_majeure_ Avatar

    The autobiography of gucci mane

  97. xo0scribe0ox Avatar

    The demon haunted world, science as a candle in the dark by Carl Sagan.

  98. NutInMyButt Avatar

    How to Win Friends and Influence People. My dad had Carnegie’s book and made me read it in middle school. It impressed one of my teachers that saw it in my bag and taught me a lot of psychology in workplace conversation

  99. This-Requirement6918 Avatar

    The one I’ve been fastidiously writing since 2004. 😮‍💨

  100. lucrezioborgio Avatar

    Many (or any?) books by Kurt Vonnegut… Taught me not to take life too seriously

  101. selchie0mer Avatar

    The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. I was working at Snow College in Ephraim Utah in 1978 as a handyman, ( a young woman and the only one on a 20 man crew for the summer). Came across the book in a climate controlled room when we were refinishing the wood paneled walls. I didn’t have time to really read because I was working but was so impressed by it I came back and copied down a page. It was the story/parable about how parents don’t own their children. That the parent is the bow and their children are the arrows that they send out into the world. My first baby was a full term still born and the type of parent I wanted to be was still heavy on my mind. I was only 19 at the time. I didn’t find out that book had been in publication nonstop until 20 years later when I came across it in a thrift store. I hadn’t even written the name of the book down at the time because I was sneak reading it and didn’t think to do that. Since then I’ve bought and given it away a dozen times. And written verses of it, framed as gifts. So much simple wisdom in that one small book.

  102. Iceblink- Avatar

    Calvin and Hobbes. Appreciate the time that you have with loved ones and appreciate your imagination. Soon you will be a dried up adult.

  103. MasteringTheFlames Avatar

    A couple years ago, a friend I was just getting to know at the time gifted me a copy of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The author is a professor of botany and a Native American, and the book just compares and contrasts those two different perspectives of plants and the natural world. I really enjoyed reading it, and felt it helped me get to know my new friend. I also then lent it to my mom, she also enjoyed reading it and discussing it together. That was back in like 2022. Just two days ago, my girlfriend and I were over at a mutual friend’s house, and I noticed a copy of Braiding Sweetgrass on said friend’s coffee table. We had a good little chat about it. And a week or so ago, my girlfriend and I took a hike, and she really appreciated my enthusiasm for cool trees, snakes and birds, just generally how much I love the sense of discovery that comes with every hike. Then seeing this book on our friend’s coffee table a few days later made me realize that I think it deserves partial credit for how I see the natural world, and so I think I’m gonna pick up another copy of the book to give my girlfriend soon, and start a reread so we can discuss it as she goes.

    In short, the book has both developed my appreciation for the natural world, and it’s brought me closer to a couple important people in my life.

  104. FighterOfNightman14 Avatar

    The count of Monte Cristo is an allegory for my life. Still fighting to get my life back but it’s so inspiring

  105. The_Observatory_ Avatar

    The Power of Myth

  106. Stable-Unstable Avatar

    Psychopath Free by Jackson MacKenzie. Was in an emotionally abusive relationship with a narc for 4 years. This book has saved me and helped me sort my feelings out when no one else could. When my anger dwindled and I was ready to get back to a normal life, I read their other book called Whole Again. I owe my life to these books.

  107. Red_K8ng Avatar

    Marcus Aurelius Meditations.

  108. timidnonnymouse Avatar

    Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

  109. tyno75 Avatar

    Brave new world and/or 1984 should be read by everyone at least once IMHO

  110. fork_spoon_fork Avatar

    Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse

  111. Han_Ominous Avatar

    Be here now…..a good read for anyone that has taken psychedelics.

  112. btedwards Avatar

    Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Completely changed the way I looked at culture.

  113. Wooden_Eye_1615 Avatar

    Rachel Carson, silent spring

  114. Smooglabish Avatar

    The Idiot by Dostoevsky.

  115. PolarIceCream Avatar

    On Death and Dying. Great advice and helped me help my father while he was passing.